Derrick (TV series)

In 1990 Shri Nathji used to watch a foreign Television Serial about a detective named ‘Derrick’. Both, Shri Nathji and Priya Nath, agree that the actor looks just like Maharaja Sarila, the late neighbour of Shri Nathji in Mussoorie.

“Bilkul Maharaja Sarila lagtaa hai!” Shri Nathji used to add, referring to the German actor who played Derrick.

Derrick is a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector (Oberinspektor) Stephan Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his loyal assistant Inspector (Kriminalhauptmeister) Harry Klein (Fritz Wepper), who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings. All 281 60-minute episodes were written by veteran screenwriter Herbert Reinecker and produced by Helmut Ringelmann. As a rule, new Derrick episodes were broadcast on Friday night at 20:15. The series received enormous popularity and was aired in more than 100 countries worldwide.

 The actor who played Detective Derrick and looked like Maharaja Sarila was German actor, Horst Tappert (26 May 1923 − 13 December 2008) Following high school, Tappert was drafted into the German army in World War II and ended up as a prisoner of war. Following the war, he was hired as a bookkeeper at a theatre in Stendal, Germany, and became interested in acting.

 He took acting classes and gave his stage debut in Stendal, playing Dr. Stribel in Paul Helwig's Die Flitterwochen. In the following years, he changed employers several times and, in 1956, started working at the Kammerspiele, Munich. An independent actor since 1967, he worked as an actor until he died.
On the right is the photograph of Maharaja Sarila. One can see the striking facial resemblance between the two men. Also Maharaja Sarila was tall and well build just like Host Tappert.  

Shri R.C.Vikal

Shri R.C.Vikal, Senior Member of Parliament, was greatly devoted to Shri Nathji. He prayed that Shri Nathji come to bless his son on the wedding reception at his house. Thus Shri Nathji attended the wedding on the 26th of June 1989.

Shri D.N.Sinha, along with a friend of his, arrived to take Shri Nathji and HH Priya Nath to the reception. The Manglaji went with them carrying drinking water and glucose.

 There, President Venkataraman comes and touches Shri Nathji’s feet. There is also the former President of India, Giani Zail Singh, who had welcomed Shri Nathji to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, President’s House in February 1987. He also comes and touches Shri Nathji’s feet. There are other Ministers of the government and members of Parliament who similarly pay their respects to Shri Nathji, as well as ordinary folk, including the servants and waiters there. Shri Nathji is meant for all, like the Sun and the Air.

Shri Vijay Kapahi has also arrived to be of service to his Lord and Master and fans Shri Nathji with a hand fan, while bringing the dignitaries to come and touch Shri Nathji’s feet.

Shri Nathji is then taken to a very crowded room inside Vikal’s bungalow where he is given an armchair next to the bride and bridegroom who touch his feet and are blessed by Him.

Shri Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, also touches Shri Nathji’s feet and is blessed by Shri Nathji with the words:

“My Blessings are always with you. This relationship is not only for today or tomorrow or a few days – it is forever!”

Rajiv Gandhi’s eyes close for a brief moment with love and spiritual bliss. He bows low and says to Shri Nathji:

“Thank You!

Many other dignitaries including the Lt. Governor of Delhi, touches Shri Nathji’s feet at the marriage reception.

Ram Chandra Vikal (8 November 1916, Nayagaon Basantpur, Ghaziabad district – 26 June 2011) was a Gurjar leader, freedom fighter and deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India. He was an agriculture minister and was elected twice as a Member of Parliament as well as a five-time Member of the Legislative Assembly. He had charge of Jammu and Kashmir during the governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He was also a well known yoga teacher.

Vikal was influenced by the ideology of the Arya Samaj from childhood and participated in the freedom movement from his student days. An agriculturist, Vikal championed the cause of the farmers, labourers and backward classes, and was instrumental in implementing various social welfare measures such as getting irrigation rates reduced and land revenue written off.

He also contributed to the setting up of various infrastructure facilities in the towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh by having bridges and railway lines constructed. He was also instrumental in getting several primary schools and colleges set up, establishing agricultural universities in Faizabad and Kanpur and a medical college in Meerut. Vikal was awarded the Degree of Vidyavachaspati, Honoris Causa, by the Gurukul Mahavidyalaya, Jwalapur (Haridwar).

Ram Chandra Vikal started his legislative career as a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1952 and was Member of that Assembly from 1952 to 1971. He held various ministerial posts — Forests and Animal Husbandry, Excise, Agriculture,Irrigation, Jail and Fisheries  – in the government of Uttar Pradesh from 1969 to 1970. He was also Leader of the Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1967 and Chairman of State Farms Corporation of India from 1982–84 .

Vikal was a Member of the Fifth Lok Sabha from Bagpat and represented Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha from April, 1984 to April, 1990. He died on 26 June 2011 at the age of 96 years.

Quaker Oats

In the 1980’s Shri Nathji’s regularly took oats for breakfast, which he has been referring to as ‘Quaker Oats’ since the days of the British, but which are in fact simple oats now

The Quaker Oats’ and made by Quaker Oats Company is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago.

Quaker Oats was founded in 1901 by the merger of four oat mills. The Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna, Ohio, which held the trademark on the Quaker name and was founded by Henry Parsons Crowell, who bought the bankrupt Quaker Oat Mill Company, also in Ravenna. He held the key positions of general manager, president and chairman of the company from 1888 until late 1943. 
He was called the cereal tycoon. He donated more than 70% of his wealth to the Crowell Trust. Three other mills which joined to make Quaker Oats were, Cedar Rapids, Iowa based mill, owned by John Stuart, the German Mills American Oatmeal Company, owned by "The Oatmeal King", Ferdinand Schumacher of Akron, Ohio and the Rob Lewis & Co. American Oats and Barley Oatmeal Corporation.The company expanded into numerous areas, including other breakfast cereals and other food and drink products, and even into unrelated fields such as toys.

In the 1970s, the company financed the making of the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, obtaining in return a license to use a number of the product names mentioned in the movie for candy bars.Since the late 1980s, actor Wilford Brimley has appeared in television commercials extolling the virtues of oat consumption, typically to a young child, as to introduce the concept of oatmeal consumption as a long tradition.

In 1983, Quaker bought Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., makers of Van Camp's and Gatorade.  Quaker bought Snapple for $1.7 billion in 1994 and sold it to Triarc in 1997 for $300 million.  In 1996, Quaker spun off its frozen food business, selling it to Aurora Foods

In August 2001, Quaker was bought out by Pepsico because Pepsi wanted to add Gatorade to its arsenal of beverages and thus break into the isotonic sports beverage market. The merger created the fourth-largest consumer goods company in the world. Though the main prize for PepsiCo was Gatorade noncarbonated sports drink, Quaker's cereal and snack food division serves as seemingly healthier complement to the existing Frito-Lay salty-snacks division.

The film “A Farewell to Arms”

In 1988 Shri Nathji and HH Priya Nath watched the film “A Farewell to Arms” based on the story of Earnest Hemingway. HH Priya Nathji likes this movie. Even as Priya Nath watches “A Farewell to Arms” the last scene shows the beloved dying in the arms of her lover – a scene that makes Priya Nath burst out into tears. Emotional scenes like these remind him of that final, dreadful, parting day that is to come – when Shri Nathji would leave him.

A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope drama film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay by Ben Hecht, based in part on a 1930 play by Laurence Stallings, was the second feature film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced by David O. Selznick. An earlier film version, A Farewell to Arms starred Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.

In this Movie, Frederick Henry (Rock Hudson) is an American serving as an ambulance driver for the Italian Army during World War I. While recovering from a wound in a British base hospital in northern Italy, he meets Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones), a Red Cross nurse, and the two engage in an affair. Frederick's friend, the doctor, convinces the army that Frederick's knee is more severely wounded than it actually is and the two continue their romance but never get married.

Catherine discovers she is pregnant but after sneaking alcohol into the hospital for Frederick, the head nurse Miss Van Campen (Mercedes McCambridge) discovers the duplicity and separates them. She informs Frederick's superiors that he has fully recovered from his wounds and is ready for active duty. During their separation, Catherine comes to believe Frederick has abandoned her.

Following the Battle of Caporetto, Frederick and his close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) assist the locals in fleeing the invading German/Austrian armies. Along the forced march, several people die or are left behind due to exhaustion. When the two ambulance drivers are finally able to report to a local army base, the commandant assumes they are both deserters from the front. Rinaldi is executed by the Italian military; enraged, Frederick knocks out the kerosene lamps and flees, jumping into the river.

Wanted by the Italian army, Frederick evades capture and eventually makes his way to Switzerland where he meets up with Catherine. Claiming to be tourists trying to evade the war, the two are allowed into neutral Switzerland. Catherine's pregnancy progresses but due to the conditions around them, the pregnancy becomes complicated and Catherine is hospitalized. Their child is stillborn, and Catherine dies shortly afterward. Frederick leaves, shocked, and wanders the empty streets.

The Story of Moses

Shri Nathji used to speak about Moses. He was particularly fond of this one story of Moses, the Prophet of the Jews, who was said to have lived about 2000 years ago.

“Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai and insisted that God reveal Himself to him.

‘Rabbe arani!’ he cried out, asking God to reveal Himself.

‘Lan taraani!’ came a voice from the Heavens, ‘No you cannot see me!’

“When Moses insisted, God revealed Himself, and the mountain caught fire. The scene was so powerful that Moses fell down unconscious.”

Shri Nathji was fond of quoting the verse:

“Ab kyoon Moosaa hain gash men khaamosh,

paihle na samhal ke guftagoo ki!

“Why lies Moses silent in a stupor,

Should he not have conversed with care?”

Moses was, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew. He is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number of other faiths.

According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Children of Israel, were increasing in number and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might help Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and the child was adopted as a foundling by the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian where he encountered the God of Israel in the form of a "burning bush". God sent Moses to request the release of the Israelites. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land.

Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE.

After Moses had reached adulthood, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand. Moses soon discovered that the affair was known, and that Pharaoh was likely to put him to death for it; he then fled from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula. In Midian he stopped at a well where he protected seven shepherdesses from a band of rude shepherds. The shepherdesses' father Hobab adopted him as his son. Hobab gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage, and made him the superintendent of his herds. Moses lived in Midian for forty years as a shepherd, during which time his son Gershom was born. One day, Moses led his flock to Mount Horeb. There he saw a bush that burned, but was not consumed. When Moses came to look more closely, God spoke to him from the bush, revealing his name to Moses. God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his fellow Hebrews from bondage

According to the Bible, after crossing the Red Sea and leading the Israelites towards the desert, Moses was summoned by God to Mount Sinai, also referred to as Mount Horeb, the same place where Moses had first talked to the Burning Bush, tended the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, and later produced water by striking the rock with his staff and directed the battle with the Amalekites.

Moses stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights, a period in which he received the Ten Commandments directly from God. In Jewish tradition, Moses is referred to as "The Lawgiver" for this singular achievement of delivering the Ten Commandments.

A short video on the life of Moses can be viewed bellow: -

Casio

Casio is the brand of Electronic keyboard, which HH Priya Nathji uses. Actually Casio Company was the first to promote Electronic keyboards on a large scale and they soon become popular all over the world. People actually started calling Electronic keyboards as Casio. The company name Casio become synonymous with the product. Besides Casio there were other companies also which make Electronic keyboards like Roland, Korg and Yamaha, but Casio was the company which popularized this product among the masses and professionals alike and for long, people associated Electronic keyboards only with Casio.

 HH Priya Nathji received a Casio from HH Pran Nath he had sent from London. That Casio was in the nature of a toy meant for children, and the sounds of the rhythm on it were very weak. That was infect, a model of the Casiotone series. Casiotone refers to a series of home electronic keyboards released by Casio Computer Co. in the early 1980s.

Most Casiotone keyboards were small, with miniature keys designed for children's fingers, and were not intended for use by professional musicians; they usually contained a rhythm generator, with several user-selectable rhythm patterns. Their low cost and abundance made them fairly common fixtures in garage rock bands all over the world. Then in late 1980’s Sudhir Saxena gave one of the greatest gifts that he could have given to HH Priya Nathji. He gave Him a Casio Keyboard, which was a more professional model from Casio. HH Priya Nath refers to the instrument as “Sudhir kaa baajaa” in the days that follow, whenever he tells Shri Nathji about his recordings. HH Priya Nathji loved this instrument. He still plays and records songs and gazals on a Casio electronic key board.

Casio Electric Keyboards are made by Casio Computer Co., Ltd. is a multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, cameras, musical instruments and watches. It was founded in 1946, and in 1957 released the world's first entirely electric compact calculator. In 1980 Casio released the Casiotone 201, its first electronic keyboard. As a compact and attractively priced unit that could play sounds from various instruments, this new product drew acclaim from music lovers around the world. Casio subsequently developed numerous features that were only possible using digital instrument technology, including one-touch auto-accompaniment, memory capacity to record and playback songs, auto-play, a melody guide function that guides users through a song by lighting up the keys, and sampling technology for recording any sound for use as a sound source.

Casio Electronic keyboards typically use MIDI signals to send and receive data, a standard format now universally used across most digital electronic musical instruments. MIDI messages would be sent when a note is pressed on the keyboard, and would determine which note is pressed and for how long. The values calculated by these sensors are then converted into MIDI data which gives a velocity value for each note, which is usually directly proportional to amplitude of the note when played. Thus it produced very accurate tones.