Compound Existence

 Hope you remember the school days, and especially the grammar classes. Oh, yes, before I broach our theme today, let me assert an important point of view. People typically argue that they are weak as far as English goes (as if their Marathi is any good! But that is a totally different issue altogether.) because they studied in Marathi Medium schools. Well, better not to forget that it is only in Marathi Medium schools that English grammar is taught with utmost rigour!

In a way, all this discussion leads to the theme today. Well, English IS one of the easiest languages in the whole world. So let us get back to its grammar. Remember complex and compound sentences? A complex sentence has inter-dependent parts such as the main and the subordinate clause(s), while a compound sentence is a free-wheeling structure.

A compound sentence would have none of the if/whether conditions. Neither does it change the very structure of the subordinated clause. It allows all its elements to be as they originally were, and, most importantly, all are equally important, without any hierarchiasation.

In my opinion, this is the way life should be! Let us look at the mother tongue versus English debate, for instance. You cannot subordinate one to the other. Both are equally important in their own ways, in their own spheres. They cannot be, and must not be, treated as mutually exclusive. In fact, even a foreign language should not looked at disdainfully.

Look at the world realities today if you want to know what I mean. Recently the President of a Latin-American country was in Delhi. Given the region/country collaborations that constantly keep on re-designing themselves, currently the GOI seems to have the "Look Latin-America way" policy. Can Spanish be irrelevant then?

In other words, just as much as I love Sanskrit, irrespective of whether, or not, it is useful for computers, equally important it is that I appreciate English and other foreign languages at least for their utilitarian value.

 In the chorus against the "Macaulay Putra's/Putri's", it is important that we better not forget that contexts today are vastly different from what they were when the notorious "Minutes" (like the "Manusmriti", often quoted without having actually read a line therein?!?) were drafted.

In other words, a compound attitude is necessary. If I have such a compound opinion, I would neither glorify Sanskrit or the mother tongue in an opinionated way, nor would I demean English or any other foreign language in a frenzied way. 

Honestly, rabid extremism is always a problem. I must, and I genuinely do, love and revere my culture, my civilisational values, and oh, yes, my religion/varna/caste as well. I follow these most reverentially. That process, however, does not stop me from respecting the perspective wherein my country, my culture, my history are inter-woven with(in) the larger paradigms.

Israel, the oft-quoted example, does not dismiss English either. It does have interesting alliance patterns. Anyways, in the post-IMF and post-WB realities, not to forget the LPG perspectives, wherein even the mighty America is steeped hugely in debt, to be closely followed by China and many European nations, insularity is impossible by definition. 

Hence my assertion that the compound way of existing, wherein all the elements/ingredients/factors are important in an equi-distant way, works better, both in individual lives and in narratives of nations!

Pratima@Actually a speech at Bangalore makes me come up with this discussion. I cannot quote it though as the video is suddenly declared "private"! Incidentally, compound interest, too, grows exponentially!

Marked by abscence!

 Very very very rare, truly rare is their appearance. If they appear at all, it should be celebration times indeed! Who do you think I am talking about? Celebrities from the sports arena who are extremely busy and quite hard-working? Business tycoons much much 'more busier' than the tinsel stars, and are absolutely hard-working? Nope!

I am talking about students being present in their UG, that is, under-graduate, classrooms. They are truly like comets! That is to say, they appear just once in some million/zillion years! Literally!

Go to any Arts and/or Commerce college. Classroom after classroom would be empty, absolutely vacant! There might be some resilient teachers who WOULD teach, even if only one student chooses to grace the occasion. 

Mostly otherwise, nobody is concerned, neither the authorities, nor the teachers, least of all the students! I find their parents most interesting. (Why) Are not they worried about what their wards do? Do not they talk to their children about their studies, their progress, the difficulties (not merely academic) that they face?

Let me give you a few examples to prove my point. I used to teach in a famous Arts/Commerce/Science college. The first lecture used to be at 7.30 in the morning. In the whole big building, most often, it used to be just my Special Subject students and I! 

The situation continues to be the same, year after year, decade after decade. The worst profile is of foreign language lectures in commerce colleges. To begin with, commerce students, whose future careers are going to be people sensitive, need languages hugely.

But their Marathi (or even Hindi) itself is nothing to write home about. Their awful English would be one of the major reasons the British would never ever dare to colonise India again! They cannot write two consecutive sentences correctly, neither in Marathi nor in English!

Now such students join the German classroom. They are learning a new language, literally from the ABCD. But they never attend lectures! Well, learning a foreign language is like a chain. If a chain snaps at one point, the entire chain is kaputt. Similarly, miss one lecture, and the chain of learning would snap. Obviously, an entire lecture cannot be repeated, though a quick revision is always the starting point of the next lecture.

Yet another point with a foreign language is that it is not used beyond the four walls of the classroom. So per day some fifteen to twenty minutes of practice is necesary back at home. Commerce lectures get over at 10.30, tops 12 on some days. The entire day is theirs to spend any which way. But they never touch the book till the next lecture, and it is a mercy if they get the book along! Keep extra sheets in the Xerox section, send message after message on the WhatsApp group; very few, those who attend lectures regularly, would bother to do the needful.

The teacher explains line by line, word by word. The teacher uses Marathi/Hindi to explain each and every word and grammatical concept. The teacher makes it utmost interesting through their own constant participation.  The teacher gives umpteen examples to explain the paper pattern, the MCQ test structure. Only some ten students (of the forty-ish class strength) , who are rather regular, benefit! 

Students, who have not attended even a single lecture, are under the impression that they can mug up the night before. That idea is WRONG, but it might be feasible/possible for a subject they would have studied for a couple of years, but surely not for a language whose letters of the alphabet they did not know till the academic year began.

Much worse are students who had a smattering of the foreign language in the junior college/school. They have forgotten everything, but they believe boastfully that they know, and can manage, every thing! One of the students who brandished his cent per cent marks (how he got them is a wonder!) at the SYJC level could not manage the simple most Akkusativ case, but he generally behaved, whenever/if he turned up at all, as if Goethe was his menial!

The most amazing are the people around who organise all, and every, possible extra-curricular activities (and practice sessions) at the same time as the foreign language lectures. Any number of students report back the wonderful comments such worthies make about learning a foreign language. Of course, one tries to convince the students that the worthies did not mean it that way. But they do know, right? How can you thus persuade to the contrary a young man/woman of nineteen years, right?

As a result, students expect that the paper be indirectly leaked. To your face, they tell you the names of other teachers who do it, and regularly. They rattle off names of teachers who give them the attendance sheets to sign on the day of the MCQ exam to process/prove cent per cent attendance. The only possible response you have is 'mum is the word'! No wonder, students just expect 'timepass' fun, and not learning, in classes if they attend at all!

And we talk of the demographic dividend!!!

Pratima@ Marked by absence is the authenticity, the sincerity, the accountability of such 'academics' if it at all be so called!

Horror indeed!

 "Horror!Horror!Horror!" is one of the most famous quotes. It is from Joseph Conrad's great novel, 'The Heart of Darkness'. Such are the oft-repeated cruelties that are these days getting constantly reported that the Conrad quote seems to suit the current realities. Darknesses, unfortunately, seem to cloud very many hearts, and, female, at that.

Well, as it was April 1 yesterday, there was a riot of memes, et al, on groups, statuses, and what have you! One such pic showed a young man carrying a blue plastic drum. The accompanying comment was "Needed: a wife who uses the drum to fill water, and not to cement me in it."

Indeed, the very thought of that notorious case from Meerut is horrible. Here is a married woman with a child.  She coolly murders her Merchant Navy husband who indulged her so much that he flew back from London for her birthday. 

Her own parents argued vehemently that he was a good son-in-law, and a good husband. For her sake, he had totally severed all the ties with his family whom she harassed hugely till she could get total control over him.

And, after all this, she murdered him most horribly with the help of her lover against whom she was repeatedly warned not only by the besotted husband but also by her own parents! Much worse, as per her lover's injunctions, she stabbed the drugged husband with the chopper she bought supposedly for her kitchen, for vetting her non-veg appetites. She coolly chopped his body, allowed the lover to take away the blood dripping head for sorcery.

Much worse still, they together cut the man's body and cemented the parts in a blue plastic drum. After all this, she had the gall to go on a "Holi" holiday with her lover. She remembered the foolish man only when money went scarce during the fun trip. After returning, she was ready to get rid of the drum which turned out to be kinder to the husband than she was! Otherwise, she would have continued her happy life with her lover without regret or without being found out!

Even otherwise, she comes across as an extremely shallow, ill-educated woman who entices a man with her looks(!?! Really! She has a very vixen like cruel face!), uses him, completely controls his money matters, carries on, that is, has affairs behind his back, and finally murders him! 

If she wanted her paramour so much, she could have gone for a separation, filed for a divorce, right? Live-in's are hardly frowned upon these days even in three-tier cities. Moreover, there would have been the alimony! Why finish a life, and his entire family?

Indeed women, too, seem to follow the terrible male ways these days. A young son is the only hindrance and encumbrance in an affair? The mother murders him! The son knows much too much about her affairs of all sorts? The mother declares him mad or epileptic! Gets him electric shocks and psycho-surgery-ed! 

Anybody from the extended family so much as dares to disagree with her over a very minor issue? Create a huge public ruckus! Want to appear 'modern'? Get one's own children addicted to booze and to baiting! 

All such shenanigans are much, much worse than the earlier attempts during the 1990's  such as ill-treating, threatening, and maligning in-laws under false pretexts of dowry demands! In the face of such heinous cruelties pales the ill-treatment of one's own sons by mothers because, in their maternal homes, their parents got only grand-daughters!

Indeed,  such patriarchally prejudiced behaviour by anybody, male or female, is bad. Such cruelty has to be gender-neutral. Currently, however, women, too, seem to compete with men in such treacherous horrendous acts. What could be the psychological, pathological, and sociological causes behind such brutalities by women? The mind boggles!

Pratima@ Such brazen barren (he)arts hide sad tales of women who are genuinely harassed which is the true 'horror!horror!horror'!

Full April Fool!

 April 1! 'The' day of pranksters, and the world over, right? Apparently, it originates in one of the greatest comedies in the literary world, Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales'. Of all the origins awarded to this concept, this possibility, in my opinion, would be the highest!

Mocking the nincompoops, laughing at faults and foibles, gently satirising the social ills go in to the making of this fest of full freedom and liberty to laugh, surely without malice  or partisanship, extremely rare in these days of showing the 'others' down in the most self-satisfied, and virtuous(o) way!

I suppose that the 'April Fool' Day custom helps us keep the child in us alive, a tough job these days, I would say, as children attain adulthood asap these days when to retain your innocence is the toughest skill!

Hence my April Fool Day would consist of curling up with the great writings by P.G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, possibly with P.L.Despande or 'Rag Darbari' by Shrilal Shukla. If time permits, my other favourites such as 'Dennis, the Menace'  may troop up, too. No, why watch the reels!?! They real make us fools the year long, right? How about you? What are your plans?

Pratima@ Hey, creating that 'Ghibili' cartoon of yourself the AI way is surefire proof of the fact that you indeed are a cartoon! What say?

Is the Consumer the King?

 The other day I was at the Grahak Peth. I feel it is always better to buy at a store run by the consumers and for the consumers. That was the way Grahak Peth began in the mid-1970's. I am not very sure, but, I think, due to one of the severest draughts, both the prices and the quality of the goods were in an inverse ratio with each other. As a result, the most abused was the common man.

Papa bought shares of the movement on principle. I added to these in Aai's name. I have also invested in their  f.d. scheme. Moreover, many items are sold there below the MRP, given the contractual agreements, I suppose. As the sum total of all such parameters, every consumer gets good returns for sure, and every which way. In the process, the concept/the movement continues to grow as well. An absolute win-win situation/solution, right?

Otherwise, in the fmg market(place), actually in every market related area, the consumer is at the receiver's end. Let us look at the "within minutes" Swiggy/Zomato, et al, kind of b2c business. Given the city/metro traffic (and distances), more than ten minutes would be necessary for the transport itself. When then is the item cooked? Obviously it must be pre-cooked, and processed with all sorts of harmful preservatives! Most people, addicted to such 'modernity', instead of the fresh food cooked at home, are thus consuming harmful health hazards! Who cares though in that craze to appear 'cool'? No wonder, all sorts of ailments and illnesses are on the rise!

From food to all possible fads, the gullible consumer is deceived and duped through seductive advertisements that never tell the truth. Whatever be the business brand/mode, including the 'gully' to google, the end customer is the one who pays, and in more than one way.  There indeed is no free lunch. Hence the need for consumer rights, consumer courts, consumer concerns. Hence the relevance of the consumer rights day, recently celebrated on March 15.

Pratima@Given the subtle monopoly marketeering, the typical consumer is like the proverbial emperor, without clothes but supposedly grand! Hence the need for awareness raising movements. 

Let us not discuss in this brief piece how the middleman mentality 'manages' both the producer and the consumer. This praxis is  fully operational, whatever be the product. Minimum governance with maximum properly placed, thoroughly debated laws and regulations could be the solution. However, petty politicking could kill the consumer in the final analysis!

The Seven Tastes

 Happy Gudhi Padwa! A new year awaits us. Let us embellish it with wonderful unique experiences. How can these experiences be? Let me explain these through the metaphor of the "gudhi padhwa chutney", a mix with which the day would begin during my parents' days. I follow the tradition.

What is it made of? It has the fresh neem leaves, tamarind pulp/extract (you can use the raw mango slices as well), a little salt, a pinch of asafoetida, cumin seeds and sugar/jaggery as its ingredients. Like Aai, I, too, use just a drop or two of water to make it a smooth paste.

Now let us look at the taste of each one of these ingredients, extremely healthy. The tender neem leaves taste bitter, tamarind is tangy, salt has the salty feel without which food cannot be swallowed, asafoetida is pungent, while cumin seeds taste warm, earthy, while sugar/jaggery makes it sweet, and just the right amount of water binds it all together.

Is not that the recipe of our daily lived lives, too? Our experiences, too, are often bitter, sometimes pungent, rarely astringent, even bitter, unavoidably salty n sour. Happiness and  joy add sweetness to life, while a teardrop or two enriches the humane awareness, right? 

Well, let us throughout this year, and beyond, enjoy this unique mix with verve and vivacity. Happy Padwa! Happy New Year!

Pratima@ The seven tastes remind me of the 'seven seas' tablets which Papa made the staple diet alongwith our morning milk, warm, glassful, and enriched with the powdered wheat essence that Aai prepared  so painstakingly.

Blue Fo(x)es

 Reading is one of my passions. Luckily, my parents encouraged it. Our childhood was full of books. Why, Papa had even got us the annual membership of the famous 'Reader's Digest'. 

One of my favourite reads then was, and even today is, Aesop's "Fables". In fact, as we grow older, we realise the subtleties of these succinct (ending with) moral stories. They are indeed like the kaleidoscope we used to make with the pieces of Aai's glass bangles. Change the angle just a little, and an absolutely new design emerges.

'The Blue Fox' is one such 'moral' story. Once a fox foraging food falls in to a trough filled with blue colour. Every inch he is true blue now. Being wily, shrewd and deceitful by nature, he decides to take advantage of the situation. He convinces every animal in the jungle that he is an altogether unique, special species. 

Having never seen such a creature ever, the straightforward animals are first beguiled totally. Lions to monkeys, all serve him devotedly. The wily fox loves this comfy life at others' expense. One full moon night, His  Lordship, the Fox, is relaxing. From afar hears he a skulk of foxes barking and screaming. Unable to control himself, he joins in. You can imagine what must have happened next.

What is the moral of the story? In my opinion, this small little story warns us that, in our lifetime, we are going to meet all sorts of and any number of blue foxes. As they are hyper manipulative, it is compulsory to learn the art of locating them, and still better, from afar. It IS very important that we do not allow the wily trickster to use us for her/his purpose.

There is an important message, I believe,  for the blue fo(x)es, too. Just because people are straightforward, better not take for granted that they are fools. They can see through all sorts of foxiness-es. Vixens are truly the ones to be guarded against. Vixens, however, must remember for their own good that none can fool all the people all the time!

Pratima@ Animals who inhabit the pages of story books are much less malevolent than those horrors walking on two legs, and sweet talking glibly!