Padma Bhushan Fr Camil Bulcke

The President of India in 1974 conferred the Padma Bhushan title on Fr. Camil Bulcke, a Jesuit priest of Belgium origin, in recognition of his services for enriching Hindi language and his research work as an indologist. Fr. Bulcke was a multi-faceted personality. His Angreji-Hindi Kosh (English-Hindi Dictionary), was first published in 1968 and reprinted several times thereafter. He is also credited with translation of the Bible into Hindi. His magnum opus, of course, is his research work on the story of Rama in Indian literature, both in Sanskrit and vernacular languages.
Fr. Camil (also spelt as Camille) Bulcke was born in Flanders in Belgium in 1909. It is said that the name of his village, Ramaskapelle, predestined him to become an expert of Ramayan and Rama story. He was an engineering graduate when he decided to join the Society of Jesus in 1930. He sailed in 1935 to India, a land that was to become his home for the rest of his life. He was ordained priest in 1941. He graduated in Sanskrit from Calcutta University, obtained his MA in Hindi and D Phil from Allahabad University.
Fr. Bulcke was the head of Hindi and Sanskrit department at St Xavier's College in Ranchi from 1950 to 1977.
Bulcke obtained doctorate in Hindi of the Allahabad University. The subject of his thesis was 'Ramakatha : Utpatti Aur Vikas'. (The story of Lord Rama: Origin and development). Allahabad University published the dissertation for the D. Phil. degree in 1950. It is noteworthy that Fr. Bulcke's dissertation was the first doctoral dissertation in Hindi. Until then, such dissertations were written only in English.
Since the thesis in Hindi was published soon after the Independence, the author of the thesis also came into the limelight. Allahabad University published the second edition of the research work in 1962 and the third edition in 1971. A Malayalam translation of the book was published by the Kerala Sahitya Academy in 1978.
Ever since Fr. Bulcke arrived in India, he fell in love with the country, especially the north Indian Hindi belt. He had accepted Indian citizenship in 1950.
Taking note of Fr. Camil Bulcke's work in the field of literature, the government of Bihar appointed him as a founder member of 'Bihar Sahitya Academy'. There after he was appointed as a member of many committees at the national level by the Central Government. He functioned as a member of many literary institutes at State and national levels. He tried a great deal for recognition of Hindi as the national language.
Apart from Hindi, Fr. Bulcke also knew well Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit and spoke Dutch, French, German and English fluently.
After completing research on Ramakatha, Fr. Camil Bulcke dedicated himself to translation of Bible in Hindi and also for creating English-Hindi dictionary. The dictionary was published in 1968 and there after many editions of the same was taken out. The translation of the entire second part of Bible, New Testament was published in 1977. The Hindi translation of Bible was published in 1986. But Fr Camil Bulcke did not live long enough to see the publication as he had passed away in 1982. Special programmes based on the work done by the scholar of oriental research were telecast on television and broadcast on radio.
Fr. Camil Bulcke has been called as an encyclopaedia of Rama story. It was said that 'in the field of Hindi research on Ram Charit Manas, an epic by a medieval saint Tulsi Das, Bulcke's work is supreme. His is the last word on the subject'. He was referred to as one of the greatest authorities on Lord Rama. Therefore, he was frequently invited to speak on Rama and Ramayana. In Hindi region of north India, he was fondly referred to as Baba Bulcke.  
Fr. Bulcke's English-Hindi dictionary is a well-known standard work. It has been described as 'a  scholarly, up-to-date and scientifically made dictionary catering to the needs of Hindi speakers in using English'.   
John Feys in his article 'Fr. Bulcke the Indologist' has said that 'only one in a thousand Jesuits perhaps can make his mark in Indology as did Fr. Camil Bulcke'.
Lauding Fr. Bulcke's research, a noted Hindi scholar has said, `As long as there will be rivers and mountains on this earth, the story of   Ram will be spread. As long as the story of Ram is told, Baba Bulcke will not be forgotten."  




References:
1. ‘Dr. Camille Bulcke: the Jesuit who loved Ram', 'Saints and sages in India', by Fr. R S Lesser, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, P B No 70, Anand, Gujarat, 388 001   
2. 'Jesuits in India : In Historical Perspective,' Edited by Teotonio R. De Souza and Charles J. Borges, Instituto Cultural de Macau and Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1992)
3. Fr. Camille Bulcke: The Indologist' by J Feys, 'Jesuits presence in Indian History' - Edited by Anand Amaladoss (S.J), Commemorative volume on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the new Madurai Mission 1838 - 1988, Published by X Dias de Rio   ( S.J.), Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, P.B. No. 70, Anand - 388 001

Don Bosco relics in Maharashtra

Relics of St Don Bosco to arrive in state next month

CAMIL PARKHE

Monday, July 18, 2011 AT 11:53 AM (IST)

Tags: Saint Don Bosco, church, world tour, Pune, Camil Parkhe

PUNE: The relics of Saint Don Bosco, which had left Turin in Italy in 2009 for a world tour as part of the second birth centenary celebrations of the youth icon priest, will be in Pune and neighbouring Nashik and Ahmednagar districts early next month.
The relics, which will arrive here from Ahmednagar, will be displayed for veneration at Sacred Heart Church, in Yerawada on August 8 and 9. Incidentally, the church parish is looked after the priests belonging to Salesian congregation founded by St Don Bosco.
The relics of Don Bosco have been recomposed from his body, which was exhumed in 1929 for his canonisation. The saint's right arm has been placed within a wax replica of St John Bosco's body which is now being taken on tour in 130 countries, where the priests and nuns of the congregations founded by St Don Bosco are working.
The relics will leave for Lonavla on August 9. The second birth centenary of the saint falls on August 16, 2015.
There are over 15,000 Salesian congregation priests and brothers and over 18,000 nuns belonging to the congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, another congregation founded by Don Bosco.
THE SAINT
The relics of Don Bosco have been recomposed from his body, exhumed in 1929 for his canonisation. The saint's right arm has been placed within a wax replica of St John Bosco's body, which is now being taken around the world.

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Comments

On 20/07/2011 09:49 AM Fr. Malcolm said:

Thank you Camil for this news. We look forward to pay our respects and have glimpses of the relic of a great saint.

On 19/07/2011 10:04 PM Shirish Sebastian said:

We hope and pray that the visit of Don Bosco to our city brings about a transformation in the Youth of our city.

Japan nuclear disaster, Nature is supreme

Nature is supreme

CAMIL PARKHE
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 AT 07:59 PM (IST)
Tags: Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Japan quake, Japan tsunami, Jaitapur, Camil Parkhe
The news related to the nuclear radiation in Japan have revived my memories of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which occurred during my visit to Russia and Bulgaria. The nuclear accident in April of 1986 at Chernobyl in Ukraine was kept a closely-guarded secret by the then USSR government. The communist nation was forced to acknowledge it only after some western nations reported sudden high discharges of radioactivity in the atmosphere. The accident, believed to be the most serious in the history of nuclear power, until last week's disaster in Japan, caused panic all over the world about the possible effects of the radiation. I, along with some Indian journalists, had arrived in Russia and later in Bulgaria for a completing a diploma course in journalism. Mikhail Gorbachev, who was then executive head of Soviet Russia, was yet to announce his glasnost (transparency) and perestroika movement of restructuring the political and economic systems of that country. So, it was not possible to know the exact number of casualties and damages caused by the Chernobyl nuclear mishap.
There were no English newspapers in Sofia where we were studying, and our translators would not dare to disclose what they had heard about the nuclear disaster. There were fears that we may not be able to fly back to Moscow en route to New Delhi and that we may have to take the alternative route of Rome. We were worried that we may already have been affected by the radiation. Our Bulgarian journalist teachers were tight lipped over the issue. It was then we really realised what Winston Churchill had meant when he coined the term 'iron curtain'.
Chernobyl nuclear incident was indeed an accident and the resultant radiation had long-term effects on thousands of people. The nuclear disaster in Japan has been caused by natural calamity of earthquake. While Chernobyl could have been averted, there was absolutely no way to prevent the earthquake which caused blasts at the Japanese nuclear reactors. The nuclear incidents in Japan have now raised question marks on the safety of various other nuclear plants, including the proposed Jaitapur project in Maharashtra, of the big dams and the high-rise constructions in the event of an massive earthquake. The Japan nuclear case has only once again underlined that we human beings are too small and too weak to resist or withstand the assaults of the nature, be it is an earthquake, tsunami or a flood.

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Education at doorsteps salespersons

Education at doorsteps

CAMIL PARKHE
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 AT 07:12 PM (IST)
Tags: Camil Parkhe
Daddy, that policeman has come again to arrest you,” announced my daughter after answering the doorbell. Grumblingly, I searched for a Rs5 coin and headed towards the door. “Your visits have now become too frequent,” I protested as I handed over the coin to the young man, shabbily dressed as a police constable. He was a member of the Bahurupi or the Rayran community which visits various houses, dressed as Shankar, Hanuman and nowadays mostly as policeman as it requires a minimum makeup. “Chala Saheb, there is an arrest warrant against you,” is how he greets the unsuspecting persons at each door and reaches a compromise with as little as Rs5 or Rs10 as his entertainment fee.
The bahurupi is among the scores of persons regularly ringing doorbells in my building. As an office-bearer of the housing society, I've been discouraging members from entertaining salespersons as a security precaution. There are notices displayed in our parking lot, announcing "Salespersons are not allowed."
I used to frown whenever I saw an elderly neighbour enjoying long conversations with salespersons offering a variety of products. “Aho Kaku, it is not safe to allow unknown persons enter our homes, they may be thieves on a recce mission,” I tried to explain to her.
Much to my chagrin, Kaku continued to evince a keen interest in what the salespersons had to say or sell although I never saw her purchasing anything from them. Kaku's family had shifted from a Satara village some years back and until recently, the family had not felt the need for modern gadgets like mixer, fridge or food processors. Then, why was she wasting time with salespersons at the risk of security, I wondered.
One day, I could not restrain myself when I saw Kaku, with absolutely no knowledge of English, flipping through the pages of a thick volume of an English dictionary brought by a young salesman. As was her wont, she did not purchase the salesman's product.
 “Kaku, why do you entertain these salespersons when you never purchase anything from them,” I asked her. “I've nothing to do when all other family members have left home either for work or for the school. Besides, talking to these salespersons, watching them demonstrating a variety of products, I'm introduced to a world I've never known before.”
Her answer stumped me. I had never imagined sales talk at the doorstep had this advantage. After that, I never objected to Kaku’s talks with salespersons.

Christmas is dual feast for City Church in Pune

Christmas is dual feast for City Church


http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20101219/5127886616320126673.htm
CAMIL PARKHE
Sunday, December 19, 2010 AT 06:12 PM (IST)
Tags: City Church, Christmas 2010
PUNE: This Christmas will be of an added significance for the City Church, the mother of all churches in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. It was on Christmas feast exactly 218 years ago that the Catholics in Pune had celebrated the first mass on a land gifted by Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa in appreciation of their services in the Maratha army.
It was on this land that the Church of our Lady of Immaculate Conception, popularly known as the City Church, stands today. This first church in Maharashtra (excluding the churches in Mumbai and Thane district) has been the mother of various Catholic churches which have come up in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad during the last two decades.
Today there are altogether 22 Catholic churches in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The British, who took over power in Pune, gifted the adjoining three acres and 14 gunthas land to the church whose population has increased by then. A new church was built on this land in 1852. Exactly a century later, the church’s premises was extended to cater its parishioners whose strength by then had risen to 7,000.
Although the oldest church in the city, the number of parishioners of the City Church has been shrinking during the past few decades. This is because a large number of parishioners during this period have sold their houses in the local area and purchased more spacious houses in Fatimanagar and neighbouring areas, the church’s parish priest, Fr George D’Souza, told Sakàl Times.
As a result now, St Patrick’s Cathedral, the city’s second oldest church built in 1850, has the largest Catholic population of over 1200 families. Now there are around 300 Catholic families in City Church’s jurisdiction.
The church has derived its name ‘City Church’ as it stood at one of the entrances of Pune, the Quarter Gate, which had existed there.

Changing media

Changing media

CAMIL PARKHE
Friday, January 21, 2011 AT 09:51 PM (IST)

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20110121/5298012004879421511.htm


Tags: Media, Changing Media, Journalism
Naren, there is a phone call for you," a journalist said and unsuspecting Naren left his seat to answer the call on the landline phone. A moment later, he realised that he had fallen into a trap as his colleague had taken control of the lone typewriter in the national newspaper where we worked. This was the situation prevailing two decades ago when the age of computers had not yet dawned. And only a few days ago, my daughter wanted to know what a typewriter was! Her question left me wondering at the astonishing speed at which technology has evolved during the past three decades.
The first newspaper establishment in Goa where I worked had a hand composing mechanism for the Marathi newspaper and mono-typesetting for the English one. I remember participating in and leading a number of demonstrations of journalists to oppose automation in newspaper industry on the ground that it would render many people jobless. Of course, nothing of that kind happened as I saw many of the young and other hand compositors being trained and absorbed as computer typesetters. Besides working as a staff reporter, I had also doubled as a correspondent of a newspaper outside Goa. That newspaper had provided a post-paid telegram card of the telegraph department. I wonder if today's youngsters would even know what is a telegram or the fear associated with its arrival.
I remember journalists in a Pune newspaper were reluctant to give up the use of the rickety typewriters and turned to computers only after a fatwa was issued that only news stories typeset in computers would be used. We took to computers and then there was no turning back. Internet in the early 1990s revolutionised not only the newspaper industry but the whole world. Pagers which made an appearance for a brief period of a couple of years faded into oblivion as soon as the mobile phone arrived. This reminds me of those days when people had to be on a waiting list for a landline phone connection for years and of those categories of ordinary, urgent and lightning calls of the telephone department on which journalists relied for collecting news or for transmitting news to headquarters.
Today, journalists transmit stories and photos to newspaper offices with a click of the mouse. Blackberries too have brought many wonders. The transition in the technology during the last a few decades is just breathtaking and makes one wonder what lies in store in the next few years

Haldi Kumnku function for men

Haldi-kunku for men

CAMIL PARKHE
Monday, February 14, 2011 AT 05:59 PM (IST)
Tags: Camil Parkhe, Haldi-kunku ceremony, Women

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20110214/5213164191992375760.htm

The door bell awoke me from my deep siesta in the late afternoon on January 26, one of the rare holidays for journalists. The caller, a neighbour, had come to invite my wife and daughter for the haldi-kunku function that evening. The door bell had woken me up at the right moment as I detest long siestas on a holiday. The delivery of the invitation message immediately had the desired effects among womenfolk on various floors of the building. Hectic preparations began to get ready for the event, although the function was to be held in the same building.
Around 7 pm, my wife and daughter went for the haldi-kunku function. I too went downstairs, wondering what to do for the next half an hour, or more. In the parking lot, my neighbour, whose wife was hosting the haldi-kunku, was all set to leave for the badminton court. I turned my search to another neighbour so that we could gossip for a while. He too had left home after learning that his wife would be busy with the haldi-kunku programme.
Then it struck me: haldi-kunku was not the only occasion that enabled the womenfolk in the building and the colony to have a get-together. Holi is a festival to be enjoyed by all but over the past years, I have found, that it is only the children -- boys and girls -- who participate in the festival of colours. Women too enjoy for about half an hour the joy of splashing colours on each other in their building. However, for most men -- the office-goers and also those having a holiday on that day -- Holi festivities are a taboo. The same is the case with Garba dances in which only young boys and women of all ages are seen in large numbers.
The last get-together of our housing society, although attended by men and women in equal numbers, had soon turned into an affair dominated entirely by women who chatted excitedly and incessantly and laughed merrily while the men sat or stood around quietly, not knowing what was to be done. They fared miserably at the antakshari, singing and all other contests. I began to wonder why we men are becoming dull and duller.
That night, three of us neighbours returned to the building at the same time. While we were in the lift together, I asked them: “Shall we have a haldi-kunku function exclusively for men?” “Hey, we really need something like that,” was the instant response. Now we are planning one. Hopefully, men lose their stiff upper lip during that function.