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Yours faithfully
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RANA SIDDIQUI speaks to M.S. Kohli whose "Miracles of Ardas" was released in New Delhi this week
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Capt M.S.Kohli... time for Ardas.
AFTER HAVING penned some 20 books on the mountains, mountaineering and mountaineers, Captain M.S. Kohli has switched sides: towards faith, God and hence, Ardas. The reason: Eighteen narrow escapes and encounters with death more than once. So it is "Miracles of Ardas", a book of incredible adventures and survivals that he penned in approximately five months and that was released this week by Dr. Karan Singh at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
"In all my books, though I wrote about my experiences in the mountains and the hardships that I faced on several occasions but in none of them did I disclose my source of inspiration and the secret power that always protected me throughout my life. My father has a lineage to Guru Gobind Singh. For 80 years from the age of 16, never for even a day did he miss Ardas. I kept this secret to myself," but this time on the insistence of his wife and experiences of his late father, he took to penning this book of 180 pages published by Indus Books.
Running into 27 episodes resulting out of his father's and wife's personal experience, the book narrates stories that reaffirm his faith in God, call people to have an unflinching faith and "sport a cause for Phingalwada".
"During Partition, my father and others were coming from Lahore. There were massacres and shoot out throughout.
They were dumped into goods train to reach here safely. In this train, out of 3000, 1000 people were shot dead. Somehow, at Wazirabad, some goods got knocked out. My father and others suddenly become visible - bare before showers of bullet. Witnessing them some 200 people from a mosque rushed towards them. They were just three minutes away from them. My father called out all to recite from a book of Ardas. As soon as he prostrated on the floor of the train, a miracle happened. Within three minutes, a train from Lahore halted with deafening noise on next track. My father spotted one Ayub, a commander from NWFP on it. He was my father's friend. He rushed to him and pleaded, `Ayub, save us'. Ayub got things under control and we reached India safe and sound," narrates Kohli with a tinge of nostalgia.
The book abounds in such stories, says Kohli. "I always recite Ardas before starting and during any expedition. Maharaja Ranjit Singh also used to recite Ardas before attacking the Moghuls. The lesson is people belonging to all religions must have an unshakable faith in God and prophets. They should always pray with all sincerity when in distress, it helps," proclaims the captain.
Kohli has just finished his autobiography, "Summi to Summit" - published by Penguin - to be released next month and also a "Pictorial Book on Bhutan". Also a Hollywood film on Spies in Himalayas is also in the pipeline, for which negotiations are on."
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