No Shadow Day!

May 13 was the "no shadow" day. On this day, at 12 noon, our shadow, supposed to follow us throughout  our life, vanishes! How is this phenomenon explained? Exactly at noon, the sun is exactly above head. As the sun is directly overhead (at zenith) at local noon, the shadows fall directly underneath objects, hiding hence the shadows.

Gone is the physical shadow! Explained is the phenomenon logically, rationally, scientifically. How about the other shadow which, forever, dogs our very existence? Yes, I am referring to the Jungian notion of the shadow. 

What Freud  called the "id", Jung chooses to call the shadow. Just as Freud talks about the sublimation of the id, especially by the artists, Jung, too, talks about 'integrating' the ' shadow. 

Why so? The "shadow" refers to the unconscious, repressed, or disowned aspects of the personality—the "dark side" containing traits deemed unacceptable, both by the ego and/or society. Anger, selfishness, or forbidden desires can be considered examples of the 'shadow work'. 

Integrating the shadow is crucial for individuation, as it holds hidden potential and prevents destructive projections. In other words, there can be  'no shadow' day psychologically, too! Indeed, some hope!!! 

Pratima@ 'Geniuses think alike.' Explains the similarity in the ideation of Freud and Jung. Never ever forget the second half of this quote by Alexander  Pope who insisted that "so do fools."

Quote of the day:                                                           " We are but dust and shadow," says Horace. 

Word of the day:  silhouette                                       A silhouette is the dark solid shape of somebody/something seen against a light background. 

The Birth of a Genre

The short story --- a story made of roughly three thousand to five thousand words tops, with a single storyline, minimal characters, and no subplots, but imbued with the creation of an intense ambience which precisely reflected the conflict at the heart of the story which often ended with a twist in the tale--- was born in response to a techno-social compulsion. 

In a way, it began n blossomed in the U. S. England did have short stories. They , however, were long short stories or novellas. Or there were serialised novels, one chapter in the monthly of fortnightly issue. 

The fast paced life in the hugely urbanising and industrialized cities, fast growing to be metros, such as New York  was tough. There was huge internal migration. Waves of immigrants chasing the American Dream were attacking the coastlines. 

Given these and many other factors, getting a home near your workplace was tough. The commute from home to work, and back, would each last at least an hour one way. To break the monotony of the travel time, the commuters needed an easy read. 

A novel was too long, the thread would easily snap, and re-building the (s)pace need not be everybody's cup of tea. A play, too, is too complex to be finished off in an hour. Anyways, it needs to be performed for the entirety of the experience to emerge. Poetry need not be everyone's muse. 

It is believed, hence, that the short story, which could be read within an hour or half, emerged, and became the favourite of the masses. I am sure each one of us has a favourite story written by Guy de Maupassant or O'Henry or Maugham or any of their descendants. Read it again, and mark the time, and you would agree with my statements!

Incidentally, our very own twenty-first century has, too, risen to the occasion. There is the new-fangled vertical drama. Vertical drama (or duanju) are plays, tops two minutes long, hyper-melodramatic series designed for vertical smartphone viewing, featuring twenty to hundred episodes. Primarily originating from China and popular on apps like ReelShort, these shows, such as "How to Break a DILF" and "The Double Life of a Billionaire Heiress," focus on fast-paced narratives like forbidden romance, revenge, and billionaire romance. Escapist entertainment for the sake of an adrenaline high!

Pratima@ My favourite most short story is attributed to Hemingway. It reads, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."  It is the world best example of flash fiction, yet another genre thrown in by contemporary realities.

Quote of the day:                                                           "Literature is the reflection of the society," says Charles Nadier.

Word of the day: genre                                               A genre is a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterised by a specific style, form, or content. 

NEET is not neat!?!

 The UG NEET, the entrance exam for medical degree aspirants, got scrapped. Apparently, there was a paper leak. The "guess paper" had an accuracy rate of almost hundred per cent for Chemistry and Biology. 

A highly hugely disturbing sad fact! No, I have nothing to do with party politics of the Opposition acting holier-than-thou variety. I have three solid worries. Let me discuss these one by one.

The first is the fact that the entire medical field is unmistakably getting conquered by the AI. This reality just cannot be overlooked nor denied. There could be positive fall-out's such as an AI enabled implant making the born blind visually absolutely unimpaired.

Hidden in this technology driven gain is the very existential threat to the medical fraternity to which, unfortunately, not many have woken up. Simplistically put, today itself, when the AI is still evolving, the common man, too, chooses to consult the AI rather than meet a doctor. Very soon, robotics and the AI would hundred per cent take over surgery.  And, here, for dirty monies' sake, people are playing 'guess paper' games!

That brings us to the second truly moot point. Students, and, obviously, their stupidly ambitious parents, who are ready to pay lakhs just for the 'guess paper', not to forget crores as private college fees, hope to be doctors!!! Being a doctor, just like being in academics, is not a 'merely money minting' business. Nor is it either 'just a month end pay cheque' paying profession. How can anybody expect any human(e), forget ethical considerations, 'treatment' from somebody who has paid crores to get a degree?

That brings us to the third major point. Is being a doctor a monetary game? ''Parents have money (How? Let us for the time being forget that truly worrisome issue), will splurge it to throw at the private sector in medical education, and get UG/PG degrees'' kind of attitude reduces the worth and value of the truly talented who genuinely work hard and sincerely, at times, even without the tuition class help. The monied caste seems to be another hurdle hurting the authentic achiever!

What about the despair and depression of these who could have been truly committed to the cause of humane service and research in medicine? Doctor, heal thyself, and fast!

Pratima@ Oh, yes, there is no need to cry over this  'neet-ly' spilt milk. In every demand for "grace marks", accepted as the 'done thing', an unavoidable "compromise" as you are told, the same dirty trick is insistent.

Oh, yes, in most autonomous educational institutes, nobody (neither the students nor their parents, and certainly not the 'professors') is worried that students do not attend the minimally conducted lectures. Instead, there are "question banks" covering the small little portion taught through the now AI versions of the 'Nirali' guides! In brief, "guess papers" are everywhere!

Even when there are three sets of question papers as in the centralised, non-autonomous, university set-up, students 'in the know', they themselves unashamedly tell you to your face, 'get to know' the 'guess paper' version. How? Any guesses?

 In brief, why learn, how teach when money, power, influence, class (of all sorts), caste (of all varieties) can get you every gain! Who cares about which losses!

Quote of the day:                                                           Says William Faulkner, "Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, and against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the world." 

Word of the day: corruption                                       Corruption is defined as a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain.

The Unmistakable Bhakti Feel

  No, I have not forgotten Tagore. How can a student cum teacher of literature ever forget Tagore? To Indian English literature, he got glory. His early twentieth century win of the Nobel for literature gained visibility for Indian Writing in English. 

Yes, I do know that those in the know feel that his own translation of  the original Bengali Geetanjali in to English is no match to/no patch on the Bengali version. I would not know. My broken Bengali is a product of watching any number of Bengali films. As for "jana gana mana", it is absolutely Sanskritised.

Better not to get in to language debacles, eh, debates. Bitter as it is they are on Bambaiya roads! Instead, let us look at Poem No. XIII from 'The Geetanjali'. The speaker in the poem is describing a mystical feel. 

It describes an eager wait. It is intense yet undefined. The welcome song is ever ready, but yet not sung. Either the accompanying musical instrument is not strung properly or the word order is not set right. 

The agony of the wait, however, is so passionate that it sears the heart. To capture it, Tagore uses the image of an unopened bud around whom the breeze, nay, the wind is sighing by. 

Who is this visitor? Unknown he is, unseen he is, unheard he is. The speaker is just aware only of the gentle footfall in the lane near the home.  The speaker's 'lifelong' day gets spent readying the seat for this much awaited visitor. Yet the lamp is yet to be lit, and as yet are not ready the words of the invite. 

Read the poem without any reference to the poet's name. Does not it sound like any and every Meera Bhajan? Or a "vachan" by Akka Mahadevi? My favourite most Sant Dyandeva's 'virani' ( songs of separation) sound like this poem of acute awaiting. In the Bengali tradition, Jayadeva's "Geet Govindam" has any number of 'padam' expressing an eager, passionate wait. 

Hence my humble submission that unmistakable is the feel of the Bhakti tradition of the Middle Ages in Tagore's  "Geetanjali."  The unstated yet acutely felt intense love for the beloved becomes a metaphor for the devotee's stung soul striving for the divine. May be, this spiritual signification gives "Geetanjali" the glory it 'nobly' deserves. 

Pratima@ Now I am going to be horribly prosaic. Yesterday, I was rushing to reach on time to Raju's place. Suddenly in our backyard, I heard footsteps, some activity. 

A thief in the middle of the morning? No, it was the next door neighbour who just jumped in. No permission, no decency. Simply horrible. The whole day, the whole family lingers near our front yard, coughing, spitting, shitting and pissing and pissing (given the simply horrible smell, nay, stench.)

 They are literally peeping in to the open door, listening to every word while I teach online. They truly need to be taught a lesson. Forever, they are loooooudly yaking away. Why was not that unofficial visit thus declared? How about the decency to inform, to ask for permission? 

That is the reason I am wary about the backyard. Earlier, there used to be a proper fence which was absolutely flattened by the construction activities of the peaceful community building a high rise not even hundred feet away. I requested the owner at least hundreds of times to lift the rubble both sides. At least I can build a proper protective wall, right? To no avail! 

May be, certain people do not understand decency, gentleness, non-interference. I am thinking of alternatives which would din sense in to dumb heads! 

Quote of the day@ Tit for tat!                                   How to extend the tit for tat tactics without dirtying one's own soul? That is the question! Fighting with a pig is no use. One gets dirty, while the pig, anyways, loves the wallowing in the muck! 

Word of the day: swine                                             A swine is a pig , a big fat old nasty hog with short legs, thick bodies, and they eat just about anything. If someone acts like a pig, best to simply call such 'swine'! 

Her Special Day

 Should a day be dedicated to Mother? Or to Father? Well, why? Parents never ever expect a show of love and gratitude. In fact, they would be downright embarassed at the public exhibition. Yet I do feel the need to celebrate both the days, however token-ish they may appear. 

But for my mother, this blog, to begin with, would not be there. Yes, it began on May 9, 2021, the first Mother's Day without her, and I promised myself that it would be forever till I am there. Like her love. 

Yes, Aai is like oxygen. Life begins with her, life sustains due to her. So simple, so unbelievably straightforward is her only wish, her child's happiness. 

I would not be senti in a dishonest way. Yes, it is not compulsory that she likes everything we do. Her love, however, has the infinite forgiveness of  God for the devotee, of mother earth for her forever erring children. 

I consider myself one of the luckiest persons on this earth because I could in a way complete the circle. That is to say, during her last months, I bathed her, cleaned her, combed her hair, fed her, helped her to go off to sleep, and with utmost devotion and love. Just the way she did once for her baby girl. 

2020 March to March, 2021. Covid  was at its worst, the Mukund Nagar quarantine was real bad. Yet I could try my best to make her as comfortable as was human(e)ly possible.

In a way, those tough but enjoyable days, initially she would not understand how I could be teaching online, though later on she used to be more attentive than my online students, taught me that motherhood is a feel. The period strengthened my belief that being motherly is not merely a physical fact. It indeed is a soul n sole solace. 

I do know that wherever she is, she would be her contented calm happy self. Yes, life has gone on. Days begin, nights end. Everything is fine, just as she would have always wished it to be. Yet, every day, there are moments that belong to her, to her memory that forever haunts this home, her home, their togetherness! Yes, life is where Aai is! 

Pratima@ As children, the three of us are exceptionally lucky because our father had a mother's heart, too! 

Quote of the day:                                                        "When you are looking at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know." Touché, Charley Benetto! 

Word of the day: Aai. 

A day to remember!

 Some days are born great, while some days are made great. Shakespeare would sure laugh off indulgently my take on his "Twelfth Night" (II.v) quote. May 8 was one such day for me. Let me explain why. 

Yes, I do adore nature. As a result, watching documentaries that reveal various aspects of nature is one of my hobbies. When it comes to such docu-statements, who better than the GOAT in this field, Sir David Attenborough, right? 

May 8, 2026 was his hundredth birthday. In his centenary year, what except huge respect for this giant who literally made the whole world, in the air, on the terra firma, and under water, accessible to us! Like Jane Goodall, he was a friend of the human(e) forefather with whom he shared such great shots that most all would forget the monkey business! 

In my personal opinion, I do strongly feel that he is the Darwin of the twentieth century! In his "Beagle", Darwin travelled to literally everywhere, and we understood the origin of the species. Sir David Attenborough made that entire treatise come alive for us, right? 

As a mark of respect for the centenarian, I watched a few of his documentaries which, anyways, make you yet again fall in love with the varied beauty and vivacity of life on earth, in air, and under water! 

The curiosity one always feels about such documentaries is about the crew. Honestly, one of my ardent wishes is to spend a summer holiday with the team of either "Discovery"  or "National Geographic". Thus may be fulfilled yet another of my dreams, yes, holding a lion cub, playing with a lion cub. An hour would do, too!!! 

Well, why I am talking of all this what may appear as sheer nonsense to many is because I watched a YouTube video in which Sir David Attenborough's crew behind the camera talks about him. The video proved that his gentleness towards animals is just an extension of his kindness towards people, and vice versa. May he live strong and healthy, and enrich our lives with a few more of his finds around the world! 

Pratima@ The evening of May 8 was still better. I got my colleague's, Dr. Gokhale Madam's, message that Shantanu, her son, a dental surgeon with the Mangeshkar Hospital, and an absolutely accomplished santoor player would be performing in a programme in Tilak Smarak Mandir. 

There was no chance whatsoever that I would miss such a golden opportunity. Within an hour of getting Ma'am's message, voilà, I was there, and was it a great, superb, simply fabulous evening! 

Shantanu began with a folk tune that celebrated the unique sound patterns of Jammu-Kashmir, from whence hails his guru, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. 

Next, he presented masterfully medleys dedicated to Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and O. P. Nayyar. Further, his renditions of the gems from the golden era of the Hindi film music were simply superb. Fabulous was his tribute to the R. D. Burman-Kishore Kumar-Rajesh Khanna trio. Be it the nineties' or the recent most songs, his santoor made many amongst the audience in to amateur singers! 

The final classical raag was the ultimate crescendo of a perfect evening. The raag he chose was not a typical one. Yet his performance  was such that one would not have minded a full-fledged hour-long exploration by him. 

What was simply marvellous about the fabulous performance was that he was himself intensely n immensely enjoying playing the difficult santoor as much as his audience appreciated his brilliant rendition. 

Equally wonderful was the fact that he was constantly co-ordinating sensitively with, was cheerfully responding to, happily encouraging his co-artists. As a result, the mehfil had an enrichingly melodious effect that is sure to linger long in his audience's memory. Indeed i cannot thank Gokhale Madam enough for the invite! 

Quote of the day:                                                          Yesterday was destined to be a unique day! 

Word of the day: rendition                                     Rendition is a particular performance, interpretation, or version of a song, piece of music, or artistic work.