Sources

1. Nilmatpurana Written in 6^th – 7^th (Oldest extant text)
2. Kalhana’s Rajatarangani Written in 1149 – 1150
3. Jonaraja’s Rajatarangani Covers 1150 – 1459
4. Jaina Rajatarangani by Srivara Pandit Covers 1459 – 1486
5. Rajavalipataka by Prajyabhatta Covers 1486 – 1512
6. Chaturtha Rajatarangani by Suka Covers up to the arrival of Asaf Khan

(Shah Jehan’s, 1628-1657, Prime Minister)

 

Chronology

Ancient Hindu Era

3120 B.C. – 598                                                  3,718 years                92 kings (chronology speculative – based on Kalhana

                                                                                                                and Ghulam Hassan Shah (1832 – 1898), in Tarikh-i-

                                                                                                                Hasan. The only source of 47 Lost Kings, based on

                                                                                                                Ratnakar Purana, compiled by Anand Kaul.

                                                                                                                Kalhana starts with King Gonanda I

Karakota Dynasty              600 – 855              255 years                        Hieun Tsiang visits Kashmir (631 – 633)

Utpala Dynasty                   855 – 1003           148 years                       Suyya, the great engineer. Sopore named after him

                                                                                                                Lalitaditya Muktapida, built Martand Temple.

                                                                                                                Avanti Varman (855 – 883). Built Samarsvamin

                                                                                                                Temple in Avantipura.

                                                                                                                Vasagupta, founder of Kashmir Shaivism

                                                                                                                Ksemgupta (950 – 958). Married Didda.

                                                                                                                Didda (980 – 1003)

1^st Lohar Dynasty                                1003 – 1101         98 years         King Harsha (1089 – 1101)

2^nd Lohar Dynasty               1101 – 1339         238 years                       Pandit Kalhana wrote Rjatarangani during

                                                                                                                Jayasimha’s reign (1128 – 1154)

                                                                                                                Suhadeva (1301 1320). During his reign Dulcha,

                                                                                                                Rinchana, and Shah Mir came to Kashmir

                                                                                                                Rinchana (1323 – 1323). Converted to Islam.

                                                                                                                Udyandeva (1323 – 1338), brother of Suhadeva

                                                                                                                Kotarani (1338 – 1339). Murdered by Shah Mir.

                                                                                                                Lal Ded born in 1335

Total Ancient Hindu Era                                 4,457 years

 

 

Muslim Era

 

Sultanate                               1339 – 1561         222 years                     Shams’Din (Shah Mir) 1339 – 1342)

                                                                                                                Sikandar Bhutshikan (1389 – 1413) –

                                                                                                                Most tyrannical to KPs. Forced conversion

                                                                                                                of KPs to Islam

                                                                                                                Zain-Ul-Abidin (Budshah) 1420 – 1470

                                                                                                                Most secular Muslim king. Death of Sheikh

                                                                                                                Nur-ud-Din Rishi

Chaks                                    1561 – 1586         25 years                        Habba Khatoon

Moguls                                   1586 -1752           166 years                    Rupa Bhavani (Shah Jehan’s reign 1628 – 1657)

Afghans                                 1752 – 1819         67 years                       Most brutal era for KPs

                                                                                                                Parmanand born in 1791

                                                                                                                Arnimal

Total Muslim Era                                              480 years

 

Modern Hindu Era

 

Sikhs                                      1819 – 1846         27 years                       Treaty of Amristar

Dogras                                   1846 – 1947         101 years                     Britain sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh for 75 lak rupees

                                                                                                                Master Zinda Kaul

Total Modern Hindu Era                 128 years

 

History of Srinagar

The city of Srinagri was founded by King Ashoka (273 – 232 B.C.) at the present-day village of Pandrethan, about 3 miles of the present-day Srinagar. (Panderthan was called Purnadisthan until 14^th cent.). Present-day Srinagar was founded by King Pravarsena The Second (Gonandiya Dynasaty) and used to be called Pravarpura. When the name Srinagri changed to Srinagar and replaced Pravarpura is not known.

Suffern, New York, Original 2003: Rev 1: 2010; Rev 2: January 29, 2017; Rev. 3: Feb. 28, 2017; Rev 4: March 4, 2017; Rev. 5: June 24, 2018

www.kaulscorner.com

maharaj.kaul@yahoo.com              

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History Of Kashmir

Taken from: Autobiographical Notes, Open Court Publishing Company,
LaSalle and Chicago, Illinois, 1979. pp 3-5.

 

When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.

As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted into every child by way of the traditional education-machine. Thus I came – though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents – to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.

It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the “merely personal,” from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.

The breeze at the beach swirled in a hypnotic rhythm,
The sky was spotlessly azure,
Sand was sensuously powdery,
It was thinly populated.

My beloved was coy and seemed to hide something,
But I did not want an unknown to mar the exuberance of the scene,
But as the hours rolled languorously
I got a feeling that something big was afoot.

Before sun’s gold melted in the tremulous ocean
My beloved declared that she was breaking off from me,
Smashing my stellar dreams,
Draining off my reservoir of tranquility.

Mornings came and melted in the echo of time,
Afternoons froze on the horizon,
Evenings echoed dolefully in the stillness,
Nights fluttered aimlessly in their blackness.

Poor heart was laid a siege more impregnable
Than the core of the earth,
It was confronted by an army of sadness
More single-minded than the My Lai massacre brigade.

When a heart is attacked
It focuses its attention on infinite –
Away from the things that attacked it,
It sees that nature has a vast reservoir of compassion
For the heartbroken.

Look at the stillness of a lake and feel its balm,
Look at a mountain and absorb its silent strength,
Look at trees and see their elegant gracefulness,
Look at animals and see their ungrudging calmness.

It is in the meaning of meaning that man not give in or give up,
For he has a tryst with destiny,
He has dreams to dream and promises to keep,
The glow of his heart will shine the earth.

A heart has its own reasons to defy adversity,
It is an immaculate piece of human personality:
Resonant, courageous, and persistent,
It is the mirror of soul, an enactor of mind.

 

Suffern,
New York,
April 18, 2014;
Rev: 6.24.15
www.kaulscorner.com
maharaj.kaul@yahoo.com

I often walk the sinewy wooded banks of Ramapo River,
But generally I am alone in the immersions into the ethereal scenery,
Slaking my thirst for loneliness and beauty.

I spent my life in small,
solitary pursuits,
Believing life is more important
Than the person temporarily possessing it.

The world around me is occupied and single-minded,
Like an addict on a
Seemingly grand though fatalistic trip to some searing plateau.

People don’t have time to look around and absorb,
Other humans the unavoidable parts of the scene,
Their will to live can be carried out only one way.

Seeing my maverick mien,
The world does not tire reminding me that I have nothing,
Not quite understanding it I continue to live as I have always done.

But in my meditative moments
I have tried to plumb the
depths of the culture surrounding me,
And have come up with some seminal insights:

Materialism and individualism are the boundless goals of our age,
Great effort is expended to have God on your side,
Fulfillment is to be possessed by self-glory.

People believe in and work hard to have good-times,
But good-times come and go, often without leaving a nurturing residue,
Not wanting to give up, people seek them again and again.

The world is right that I do not possess those ornaments –
I walk askew to the flow of its culture,
I am alone but not lonely.

For me wealth serves only utilitarian purposes:
Comfort and style are wholesome – but not crass opulence and vulgarity;
The day when money replaces God will be the end of humanity.

I need liberation and not possession,
I need affirmation of my values through my life,
Not their recognition by others.

There is great beauty in nothingness,
It focuses on searching the human spirit,
And the spirit of the grand architecture of nature behind it.

Space around us
Beckons us to infinity and beauty –
It is never empty.

I have nothing,
But I am on the grand voyage
To become one with the universe.

Suffern, New York, 2.1.11
www.kaulscorner.com

Here lies the unknown poet who nursed his muse so long,
The world listened to him with passionate curiosity,
Understanding well his literary designs,
But missed the connection with his soul.

He led a short and solitary life,
Following his dream to write with stoic ambition and cool grit,
He shielded arrows of disparagement and neglect,
Lived a pariah in a rickety cabin away from the town.

The world bedeviled him with class and customs,
Superstitions and personal gods,
He lived with a compassionate detachment from it,
Growing flowers in his lonely furrow.

He spent his time trying to understand nature,
Writing snippets from his continuous dream,
Ensconced in meditative consciousness,
The mystery of life never deserted him.
A transformer of the messages from nature to humans,
He only chose the words, the ideas came from the beyond,
Today, we salute his fecund contribution to the mythology of life,
We lay two flowers on his unmarked grave.

Suffern, New York, 12.22.10
www.kaulscorner.com

We are, in human form, a dancing bubble of consciousness,
To be reclaimed by universe in a twinkle of time,
In our brief journey a lot is put on our shoulders,
Many false visions are fastened to us,
Many unreal values surround us.

Man has been blind to the grandeur he is born with,
He has invented a mythology to give him unearthly character,
He has invented aspects of culture to give life drama and color,
But man comes with these naturally,
The irony of this is excruciating.

The elements of life have come from the mind-bogglingly hot and distant stars,
When coalesced over billions of years,
This drama of our creation is a supreme piece of grandeur.

Much artificality and reining in of the natural spirit is the outcome of culture,
Much confusion about how to live reigns mankind,
Much perplexed is mankind about the meaning of life,
Man comes with powerful raw materials and messages from nature,
Growing up should be the strengthening and refinement of these.

Life is a celebration of the brilliant mechanism of nature we are,
The capacity to observe and understand that are given to us,
The long age we are bestowed with.
It is a brief spark of god
That we need to use in a large and opportunistic way.

Man is born free and possessed of grandeur,
But culture robs him of these and substitutes dependence and hollowness.
He has good untuition of enjoyment and responsibility,
But world supplants them with inhibition and guilt.

The drama and beauty of life are inherent in its nature,
Its wonder our ever-present reverence,
Its capacity and potential our enduring awe.

Time is one of the fundamental dimensions of universe,
Meditation on time is the contemplation of universe,
Where we come from and where we inexorably return,
Meditation on time is life itself.

This site is dedicated to the exchange of ideas. Ideas are the significant building blocks of our understandings and values, which create the roadmap of the life for individuals and the humankind. I want the members of the site to discuss their philosophical, cultural, and artistic ideas on this site. I want the site to be a pulsating node of critical thinking. Beyond the ideas themselves, it is their exchange, their discussion, which weaves the web of high human culture. I subscribe to Lessing’s saying, “The search of truth is more important than its possession.”

The Future

Future, in its connotation with human life, is the subject of my first blog.

Though man’s life is heavily guided by past but it is present and future that gives his life the highest meaning.

But actions cannot be good unless we know which of them are good. To know that we have to have the knowledge of what is good and what is bad in life. Which in turn compels us to think and learn. Thinking and learning are complex. What a common man thinks in our times is the culmination of thousands of years of human evolution. So, we are an evolving phenomenon, as there is no universal agreement on many important things in life.

In the distant past the heavy burden of survival created a lot of thinking about life. Survival is still a significant consideration in our value systems but man has learnt in the recent millennia that there are values beyond it. Culture used to be the environment where our philosophy was born in and grew in. But culture has suffered many setbacks on the hands of the developing individualism. And individualism is diverse and inconsistent, even in the same country.

A hundred years from now, how will man’s thinking be? We will touch on this subject in the future blogs.

M. Kaul

Human tragedies are caused, generally, by forces outside the victim’s mind. Self-inflicted devastation on a mass scale is uncommon. That is why understanding the madness reigning over Kashmir is intriguing.
A revolution is a statement in action against an existing system which is contrary to a significant principle of human existence or value. Kashmiri Muslims are fighting to convert their Indian citizenship to a Pakistani one. Independent Kashmir is a hallucination harbored by the most feeble minded of the separatist zealots. Any declared Kashmir independence will not survive a week because Pakistan will trample it and replace it with its flag. Purity of motivation is not an issue in understanding the bizarre behavior of Kashmiri Muslims, it is the worthwhileness of the price they are paying to capture the prize they are after that is questionable. Once enjoined with co-religionists, Muslims will be humiliated and relegated to a second-class citizenship. The abandonment of the present secure and unhampered relationship with India to become an unequal and fragile part of an impoverished, undemocratic, and benighted Pakistan is an eclipse of mind and a stifling of the instinct to survive.
In an unthinking sweep of destruction, Kashmiri Muslims are erasing the centuries old finely tapestried culture and turning the decades old echo of historical tranquility into a nightmare of death and isolation, cruelly breaking the long bonds with the dominant inhabitants of the subcontinent, Hindus, and subjecting themselves to economic and political catastrophe. All this they are doing for the imagined bliss of cohabiting only with the fellow co-religionists. Giving up all the present life sustaining security and secular ideals for this fantasy is an obliteration of reality into extreme, a suicide without a redeeming cause.
Muslims have lived in Kashmir since the fourteenth century, before that it was predominantly a Hindu inhabited and ruled place, in fact, one of the resplendent centers of Hindu culture. Most of the Muslims in Kashmir converted from Hinduism. Frictions between the two, though ever present, have at times climaxed to murder, savage behavior, and most primitive hatred. But in the last several decades the two had learned to live with each other. Sharply different though Hinduism and Islam are from each other, the almost common culture, the common language, the shared history, and the instinct to survive had woven the until- now durable web of co-existence between the two.
Continuing the momentum of coexistence with Hindus, the Muslims did not try for separation at the most opportune time, the Indian partition in 1947. During the integration of the Indian states and kingdoms in 1947, Sandar Patel and V.P. Menon, the architects of the project, did not try to capture Kashmir in the net, because of its odd Muslim majority and an independent and arrogant king, Han Singh. And, also, because their hands were full working on what was within their grasp. Not only did not Muslims try to part with India, but they did not express any feelings contrary to this. There were no debates, meetings, or protests to lay down the separation-with-India line of thinking. In fact, their greatest leader, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, assiduously worked to weld the Indian Kashmiri divide. That Kashmir Muslims offered themselves voluntarily and freely to India for an alliance between them is an often overlooked fact of recent history. It would have been easiest for India to part with Kashmir at that juncture and also easiest for Muslims to obtain such an annulment.
Post 1947 saw an upliftment of Kashmiri Muslims in economic, social, political, and educational levels from the decades of hovering at the bottom. This period of sea-change in their lives is one of the most significant in their six hundred year history. By the 60’s they controlled politics, business, and culture. The “employer—employee” relationship between Hindus and Muslims was reversed. Additionally, Muslims benefited from the Indian Government’s policy of ingratiation and appeasement with them. They were left undisturbed in the practice of their religion and culture. The protections provided by Article 370 of the Indian Constitution further strongly reinforced their security: economic, political and religious.
The insurgency of Kashmiri Muslims has roots in their psychological rather than political experience. The outward political aggression is a misplaced catharsis of their latent mental conflicts. We have seen Islamic “revolutions” around the world doing the same. Imprisoned by the antiquatedness and narrowness of their religion, as almost all the practitioners of religions are these days, Muslims unable to cope with the alienation and stresses of the modern life have forged an attack on its imperfections, yearning to recoil to the earlier uncorrupted and pristine state of the practice of Islam. Religions operate on a priori basis and can become a barrier to the questioning spirit needed for modern living. Fundamentalism is several stages further removed from the free questioning spirit than the normal level practice of religion. Religious fundamentalism is the most charged and lethal large scale closed faith system in existence at this time. Its foundations lie in the repudiation of modern life tenets: secularism, scientific humanism, and non-religious spirituality. Islamic fundamentalism furthermore rejects women’s equality with men.
The identity problem burdened psyche of a Kashmiri Muslim has, additionally, to bear the non- identity problem he has with India. In spite of sharing India’s wealth and security, the Kashmiri Muslim has not cultivated an identity with India. This separateness has led to aloofness and mistrust.
A bomb is a mixture of explosive chemicals triggered by an ignition. To the Kashmiri Muslim state of mind seething with turmoil brought upon by the worldwide fundamentalist movement and buffeted by alienation with India was latched the ignition of Pakistan’s Kashmir complicity.
Kashmiri Muslims are committing a physical, economic, and mental suicide. The combined destruction will affect their lives for several generations. The children going through the upheaval will nourish aberrant psyches for the rest of their lives and the trauma will hang heavily on the Kashmiri culture for a long time. It is not the religious restrictions, undemocratic politics, or the eccentric economics which form the underpinnings of the turmoil in Kashmir.
Historians, in future, will look upon the present crisis in Kashmir as an upheaval caused by its people due to their long and tortured struggle with their identity, expressed outwardly by a religio-political freedom movement, exploited and abetted fully by its neighbor, Pakistan, which was hungering for long to enclave it to help its internal political problems.

COMMITTEE
ON
“REFUGEES OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM IN KASHMIR”
SYMPOSIUM
SPONSORED BY INDO-AMERICAN KASHMIR FORUM & KASHMIR OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION

Dear Friend:
A man believes in many things: peace and unconstrained pursuit of happiness, brotherhood of mankind and equality among its groups, and uniqueness of the individual. These are not only lofty visions of mankind but, also, the practical ways to live it has learned in its long history on this planet. When these values are shattered a human being’s life is reduced to mere physical existence.
The above devastation in Kashmir is furthermore accompanied by the massacre of an innocent minority and destruction of its property, bringing a total breakdown of civilization. All this is being done in the name of religion.
The Kashmir crisis has reached a point where it is possible that we may lose it in the not so distant future. This calamity will bring unspeakable pain to the two hundred thousand Hindu refugees created by the crisis, dismember India of an ancient and a significant part, and trigger the withering away of a culture.
Even before the materialization of this ultimate catastrophe we are standing in witness to human suffering and degradation of horrific proportions. Two hundred thousand tortured victims are struggling for survival in torment and humiliation. They have mostly met unsympathetic and uncaring treatment by the government. Their misery and hopelessness has left a hole in our hearts and disillusionment in our minds.
What should they do to survive? What will they do tomorrow? Where do they go from here? These are open-ended questions which reverberate in empty echoes, without answers. Human condition at this level provokes anger, heartbreak, compassion, and flight into action.
Toward the end of action many organizations around the world have made contributions. Kashmir Overseas Association, based in U.S.A., has sent more than $100,000 and clothing to the refugees and, also, sent its personnel to their camps to assess the situation firsthand. The Kashmir upheaval is being countered at different levels: political, military, cultural, and intellectual. You most likely have participated at more than one level.
Some people in the Tri-State area think that a symposium on the terrorism in Kashmir will be a valuable contribution to the cause of stemming it. Many non-Kashmir Indians, most Americans, and people of other nationalities are unfamiliar with the causes of the Kashmir crisis. Because of this, most of the people remain on the sidelines, inactive and unmotivated to take any position on the problem. Furthermore, the terrorists and their backers have put forward fractured and imaginatively colored version of the facts. In fact, a well programmed and orchestrated disinformation campaign.
Kashmiris alone can not fight the war with the religious fundamentalists. We need the help of non-Kashmiri Indians, Americans, and other people. One of the first steps of persuasion is dissemination of information concerning the cause. We believe by presenting information on Kashmir history, causes of the crisis, and the consequences of the terrorism, the American politicians, press, and people, and the people of other nationalities will be better motivated to fight for what is fair and just.
The committee believes that education on the Kashmir crisis is of paramount importance. particularly for the American politicians and the press. Fortified by facts, we can impregnate them with the confidence of conviction.
The Committee plans to present a symposium on terrorism in Kashmir in the next three to four months in New Jersey. American and Indian politicians, others, and you will be invited to speak and participate.
We expect the symposium to inform, persuade, and motivate people to fight for the right of Kashmiri Hindus and other minorities to live peacefully in their homeland and to stop further devastation of Kashmir. Details of the symposium will be sent to you as they develop.
To arrange this symposium we need your organizational and financial help. Please write to the Committee at the given address. Your help of $50, $100, and more is essential for the effort to materialize. Send your checks to Indo-American Kashmir Forum.
It is an extraordinary experience to witness your homeland destroyed, your brethren brutalized, and your culture smitten. But even while going through this harrowing experience one hears the inner voice murmuring: if Kashmir dies can we live, and if we live can we let Kashmir die?

Sincerely,
Indo-American Kashmir Forum
P.O. Box 2086 M. Kaul
Wayne, New Jersey 07474-2086 On behalf of the CommitteeCOMMITTEE
ON
“REFUGEES OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM IN KASHMIR”
SYMPOSIUM
SPONSORED BY INDO-AMERICAN KASHMIR FORUM & KASHMIR OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION

Dear Friend:
A man believes in many things: peace and unconstrained pursuit of happiness, brotherhood of mankind and equality among its groups, and uniqueness of the individual. These are not only lofty visions of mankind but, also, the practical ways to live it has learned in its long history on this planet. When these values are shattered a human being’s life is reduced to mere physical existence.
The above devastation in Kashmir is furthermore accompanied by the massacre of an innocent minority and destruction of its property, bringing a total breakdown of civilization. All this is being done in the name of religion.
The Kashmir crisis has reached a point where it is possible that we may lose it in the not so distant future. This calamity will bring unspeakable pain to the two hundred thousand Hindu refugees created by the crisis, dismember India of an ancient and a significant part, and trigger the withering away of a culture.
Even before the materialization of this ultimate catastrophe we are standing in witness to human suffering and degradation of horrific proportions. Two hundred thousand tortured victims are struggling for survival in torment and humiliation. They have mostly met unsympathetic and uncaring treatment by the government. Their misery and hopelessness has left a hole in our hearts and disillusionment in our minds.
What should they do to survive? What will they do tomorrow? Where do they go from here? These are open-ended questions which reverberate in empty echoes, without answers. Human condition at this level provokes anger, heartbreak, compassion, and flight into action.
Toward the end of action many organizations around the world have made contributions. Kashmir Overseas Association, based in U.S.A., has sent more than $100,000 and clothing to the refugees and, also, sent its personnel to their camps to assess the situation firsthand. The Kashmir upheaval is being countered at different levels: political, military, cultural, and intellectual. You most likely have participated at more than one level.
Some people in the Tri-State area think that a symposium on the terrorism in Kashmir will be a valuable contribution to the cause of stemming it. Many non-Kashmir Indians, most Americans, and people of other nationalities are unfamiliar with the causes of the Kashmir crisis. Because of this, most of the people remain on the sidelines, inactive and unmotivated to take any position on the problem. Furthermore, the terrorists and their backers have put forward fractured and imaginatively colored version of the facts. In fact, a well programmed and orchestrated disinformation campaign.
Kashmiris alone can not fight the war with the religious fundamentalists. We need the help of non-Kashmiri Indians, Americans, and other people. One of the first steps of persuasion is dissemination of information concerning the cause. We believe by presenting information on Kashmir history, causes of the crisis, and the consequences of the terrorism, the American politicians, press, and people, and the people of other nationalities will be better motivated to fight for what is fair and just.
The committee believes that education on the Kashmir crisis is of paramount importance. particularly for the American politicians and the press. Fortified by facts, we can impregnate them with the confidence of conviction.
The Committee plans to present a symposium on terrorism in Kashmir in the next three to four months in New Jersey. American and Indian politicians, others, and you will be invited to speak and participate.
We expect the symposium to inform, persuade, and motivate people to fight for the right of Kashmiri Hindus and other minorities to live peacefully in their homeland and to stop further devastation of Kashmir. Details of the symposium will be sent to you as they develop.
To arrange this symposium we need your organizational and financial help. Please write to the Committee at the given address. Your help of $50, $100, and more is essential for the effort to materialize. Send your checks to Indo-American Kashmir Forum.
It is an extraordinary experience to witness your homeland destroyed, your brethren brutalized, and your culture smitten. But even while going through this harrowing experience one hears the inner voice murmuring: if Kashmir dies can we live, and if we live can we let Kashmir die?

Sincerely,
Indo-American Kashmir Forum
P.O. Box 2086 M. Kaul
Wayne, New Jersey 07474-2086 On behalf of the CommitteeCOMMITTEE
ON
“REFUGEES OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM IN KASHMIR”
SYMPOSIUM
SPONSORED BY INDO-AMERICAN KASHMIR FORUM & KASHMIR OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION

Dear Friend:
A man believes in many things: peace and unconstrained pursuit of happiness, brotherhood of mankind and equality among its groups, and uniqueness of the individual. These are not only lofty visions of mankind but, also, the practical ways to live it has learned in its long history on this planet. When these values are shattered a human being’s life is reduced to mere physical existence.
The above devastation in Kashmir is furthermore accompanied by the massacre of an innocent minority and destruction of its property, bringing a total breakdown of civilization. All this is being done in the name of religion.
The Kashmir crisis has reached a point where it is possible that we may lose it in the not so distant future. This calamity will bring unspeakable pain to the two hundred thousand Hindu refugees created by the crisis, dismember India of an ancient and a significant part, and trigger the withering away of a culture.
Even before the materialization of this ultimate catastrophe we are standing in witness to human suffering and degradation of horrific proportions. Two hundred thousand tortured victims are struggling for survival in torment and humiliation. They have mostly met unsympathetic and uncaring treatment by the government. Their misery and hopelessness has left a hole in our hearts and disillusionment in our minds.
What should they do to survive? What will they do tomorrow? Where do they go from here? These are open-ended questions which reverberate in empty echoes, without answers. Human condition at this level provokes anger, heartbreak, compassion, and flight into action.
Toward the end of action many organizations around the world have made contributions. Kashmir Overseas Association, based in U.S.A., has sent more than $100,000 and clothing to the refugees and, also, sent its personnel to their camps to assess the situation firsthand. The Kashmir upheaval is being countered at different levels: political, military, cultural, and intellectual. You most likely have participated at more than one level.
Some people in the Tri-State area think that a symposium on the terrorism in Kashmir will be a valuable contribution to the cause of stemming it. Many non-Kashmir Indians, most Americans, and people of other nationalities are unfamiliar with the causes of the Kashmir crisis. Because of this, most of the people remain on the sidelines, inactive and unmotivated to take any position on the problem. Furthermore, the terrorists and their backers have put forward fractured and imaginatively colored version of the facts. In fact, a well programmed and orchestrated disinformation campaign.
Kashmiris alone can not fight the war with the religious fundamentalists. We need the help of non-Kashmiri Indians, Americans, and other people. One of the first steps of persuasion is dissemination of information concerning the cause. We believe by presenting information on Kashmir history, causes of the crisis, and the consequences of the terrorism, the American politicians, press, and people, and the people of other nationalities will be better motivated to fight for what is fair and just.
The committee believes that education on the Kashmir crisis is of paramount importance. particularly for the American politicians and the press. Fortified by facts, we can impregnate them with the confidence of conviction.
The Committee plans to present a symposium on terrorism in Kashmir in the next three to four months in New Jersey. American and Indian politicians, others, and you will be invited to speak and participate.
We expect the symposium to inform, persuade, and motivate people to fight for the right of Kashmiri Hindus and other minorities to live peacefully in their homeland and to stop further devastation of Kashmir. Details of the symposium will be sent to you as they develop.
To arrange this symposium we need your organizational and financial help. Please write to the Committee at the given address. Your help of $50, $100, and more is essential for the effort to materialize. Send your checks to Indo-American Kashmir Forum.
It is an extraordinary experience to witness your homeland destroyed, your brethren brutalized, and your culture smitten. But even while going through this harrowing experience one hears the inner voice murmuring: if Kashmir dies can we live, and if we live can we let Kashmir die?

Sincerely,
Indo-American Kashmir Forum
P.O. Box 2086 M. Kaul
Wayne, New Jersey 07474-2086 On behalf of the CommitteeCOMMITTEE
ON
“REFUGEES OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM IN KASHMIR”
SYMPOSIUM
SPONSORED BY INDO-AMERICAN KASHMIR FORUM & KASHMIR OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION

Dear Friend:
A man believes in many things: peace and unconstrained pursuit of happiness, brotherhood of mankind and equality among its groups, and uniqueness of the individual. These are not only lofty visions of mankind but, also, the practical ways to live it has learned in its long history on this planet. When these values are shattered a human being’s life is reduced to mere physical existence.
The above devastation in Kashmir is furthermore accompanied by the massacre of an innocent minority and destruction of its property, bringing a total breakdown of civilization. All this is being done in the name of religion.
The Kashmir crisis has reached a point where it is possible that we may lose it in the not so distant future. This calamity will bring unspeakable pain to the two hundred thousand Hindu refugees created by the crisis, dismember India of an ancient and a significant part, and trigger the withering away of a culture.
Even before the materialization of this ultimate catastrophe we are standing in witness to human suffering and degradation of horrific proportions. Two hundred thousand tortured victims are struggling for survival in torment and humiliation. They have mostly met unsympathetic and uncaring treatment by the government. Their misery and hopelessness has left a hole in our hearts and disillusionment in our minds.
What should they do to survive? What will they do tomorrow? Where do they go from here? These are open-ended questions which reverberate in empty echoes, without answers. Human condition at this level provokes anger, heartbreak, compassion, and flight into action.
Toward the end of action many organizations around the world have made contributions. Kashmir Overseas Association, based in U.S.A., has sent more than $100,000 and clothing to the refugees and, also, sent its personnel to their camps to assess the situation firsthand. The Kashmir upheaval is being countered at different levels: political, military, cultural, and intellectual. You most likely have participated at more than one level.
Some people in the Tri-State area think that a symposium on the terrorism in Kashmir will be a valuable contribution to the cause of stemming it. Many non-Kashmir Indians, most Americans, and people of other nationalities are unfamiliar with the causes of the Kashmir crisis. Because of this, most of the people remain on the sidelines, inactive and unmotivated to take any position on the problem. Furthermore, the terrorists and their backers have put forward fractured and imaginatively colored version of the facts. In fact, a well programmed and orchestrated disinformation campaign.
Kashmiris alone can not fight the war with the religious fundamentalists. We need the help of non-Kashmiri Indians, Americans, and other people. One of the first steps of persuasion is dissemination of information concerning the cause. We believe by presenting information on Kashmir history, causes of the crisis, and the consequences of the terrorism, the American politicians, press, and people, and the people of other nationalities will be better motivated to fight for what is fair and just.
The committee believes that education on the Kashmir crisis is of paramount importance. particularly for the American politicians and the press. Fortified by facts, we can impregnate them with the confidence of conviction.
The Committee plans to present a symposium on terrorism in Kashmir in the next three to four months in New Jersey. American and Indian politicians, others, and you will be invited to speak and participate.
We expect the symposium to inform, persuade, and motivate people to fight for the right of Kashmiri Hindus and other minorities to live peacefully in their homeland and to stop further devastation of Kashmir. Details of the symposium will be sent to you as they develop.
To arrange this symposium we need your organizational and financial help. Please write to the Committee at the given address. Your help of $50, $100, and more is essential for the effort to materialize. Send your checks to Indo-American Kashmir Forum.
It is an extraordinary experience to witness your homeland destroyed, your brethren brutalized, and your culture smitten. But even while going through this harrowing experience one hears the inner voice murmuring: if Kashmir dies can we live, and if we live can we let Kashmir die?

Sincerely,
Indo-American Kashmir Forum
P.O. Box 2086 M. Kaul
Wayne, New Jersey 07474-2086 On behalf of the Committee

Feb. 28, 2007 will be the last day of my work, as I will be retiring after 29 ½ years.

Looking back I see the swell of ambition, intense desire to excel in my line, and joy in work motivating me. There were Mondays when I would come to work with so much happiness that I had to hide it, lest people think I am insane. I had set up a second office at my home, where I would work at nights and weekends. Central Engineering then was one of the nerve centers of the plant. We had exceptional leadership in place then. With Bill Whiting’s highly intense, workaholic drive, the engineers under him worked without a break. It was not only the quantity of work, but more than that, its quality that he strived for. The heads of Engineering: Joe Zangara, Raj Loonkar, Gene McEvoy, Bhawani Mukherjee, Nick Sarlis, they were all imaginative people, who pushed up the quality of Engineering and its teamwork several notches higher than before and made it one of the high caliber services in the plant.

Beyond one’s ambition, man’s primary work is a crucial component of his emotional and psychological infrastructure. To be sure, we all need to go to work to make money to pay off bills, but there are many who go to work also for reasons beyond the payment of their bills. Pearl River site seemed to have a spirit, an essence, a vision, which inspired and encouraged many people to work hard without expectation of any reward.

Engineering is a team enterprise, where many different people contribute to the project’s success. I could not have achieved what I did without your sustained and reliable help and friendship. We did some very challenging projects together, both in technical difficulties and in tight timelines, out of about two hundred and fifty projects that I did. The Batching Project in 60 B, where Prevnar is now made ( M$ 20, 1995 – 1997 ), Standard Products Facility in 100 Complex, the first Focus Factory at the site, ( M$ 8.0, 1992 – 1993 ), and New WFI Facility for 60D operations ( M$ 4.0, 2001 – 2002 ) were among the great challenges that fell our way. The memory of these will always warm my heart. It is unfortunate that sometimes only a project’s leader is rewarded for the success of the project, when many other contributors to it have significantly mattered.

Today I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help in my work at Wyeth in the last thirty years. I value your contributions to my professional life and treasure your friendship. While today I am bidding goodbye to you, tomorrow I will miss you. But I must move on to the next stage of my life and pick up the threads of my parallel life, that of a writer.

Raj Kaul

After 2.28.07 you can contact me at:
845-368-4635

Kaul1000@yahoo.com
www.kaulscorner.com (this is my website, which is in infancy stage as yet)