Goddess greetings!

 Today begins the Sharadiya Navratra. Impossible it is to translate "Sharadiya" in to English, because like all the other European languages, English, too, has neither the monsoon nor the 'Sharad' season. In India, however, it occupies a central position in parlance. In a way, such a linguistic usage is inevitable because India continues to be an agrarian economy.

True, right now the talk of the town, eh, of the world, is the way America has "cut off the head of the snake" as the Sonderling saying goes. Yet we all know that the real grouse is the Indo-American treaty regarding the agricultural produce, and the related livestock and fisheries businesses. 

Some proof this tariff trough is of the fact that the agrarian sector matters the most to us. The Shardiya Navratra is a celebration of this primacy. The Kharif crop is almost ready for harvesting around this time. True, this year, the Niño effect has ripped off reaping. 

Yet the seasonal cycle is unmistakable. The bounty of nature is beatific. Hence its symbolic representation as the ever prolific goddess. Beautiful, just like this underlying signification are the 'strotras' extolling the goddess. 

She is the holiest of the holies, she is beneficence itself, she is the daughter of the mountains (the Himalayas from whence begin five rivers that have enriched civilisations and cultures for centuries), she is the parent principle, she is strength, she is the intellect, she is the spirit, she is the soul. Hence her adulation! Happy Navratri! 

Pratima@One of the items in my basket wish list is visiting Kolkata during the navratri. It has to be what Ganesh Utsav is to Pune. Well, with a Bengali friend, I did attend the "pujo" pandals in Hyderabad. But it was not mere nostalgia nor fomo when she insisted that it was no patch on "amar shonar" Debima for whom the only supplication would be "Bhalo bashi"! 

Quote of the day:                                                         "The goddess is the great nurturing mother who contains all things, gives birth to all things, and ultimately reclaims all things back into her cosmic womb." Yes, Carl Jung.

Word of the day: beneficence                                  Beneficence is the ethical principle of acting with kindness, charity, and an active obligation to promote the best interests and well-being of one n all.

Aspirational Anarchy

 What with the 'chasing Delhi yet again' pogrom by the CJP, certain centrally relevant questions arise, which we, the citizens of India, as the Constitution defines us, need to explore honestly. 

The moot one is why diminish the basal institutions? Just as deforestation leads to the collapse of the natural cycle, unjustifiably corroding the institutions that go in to the making of a nation state destroys the very base of a democracy which deliberates issues in the parliament!

Well, the present Chief Election Commissioner assumed office much later than the major state assembly elections in to which he/his office supposedly interfered! Simple decency demands that in the lust for power, legitimacy of base institutions need not be undermined.

Hence the title of our blog. Who all are involved? The CJP, apparently a frontispiece of the AAP? Congress which won three states with the exact same procedures? Does not the same cynicism colour all the other Opposition parties? Yes, power sure matters to career politicians. Why use openly malicious methods? 

Oh, yes, while hating a person, a party, a procedure/pattern of  thinking, is not it better to remember that 'hatred for the sake of hatred' tarnishes, nay, diminishes, the hater? Espcially necessary in this context it is to recollect, and not a la Wordsworthian tranquility, the transactional modes of the multi-polar wor(l)ds today. 

Why must our capital replicate either the Parisian streets right now or a fortress? Why aspire to anarchy (Please do remember that anarchism is a totally different political philosophy which, incidentally, our very own Revolutionary Bhagat Singh, if you were to read his committed writings, did not advocate in post-Independence times) so that your own power games lead to the throne!?!

Pratima@ When I saw the video of Dipke c(r)ackling about the police deployment, I remembered the childhood story of a mouse who thinks of his cap as the crown, and mocks the king with it! Sure, though, one feels sad about his Granma passing away. Hope he gets to see her one last time. RIP!

Quote of the day:                                                               Says Aldous Huxley, "The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy..." 

Word of the day: anarchism (is not anarchy!) Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish capitalism and all forms of hierarchical authority, replacing them with a stateless society based on voluntary cooperation, free association, and mutual aid!!!

Celebrating Marathi

 Marathi is my mother tongue. As a child loves her parents, so do I adore my mother tongue. Oh, yes, my articles, stories, translations in Marathi have been published in highly respected magazines. No hard feelings whatsoever, in brief. 

And yet, may be, because l respect it a lot, may I put forth a few points that I think need deliberations? First and foremost, despite my adulation for my mother tongue, I am honest enough to admit that Marathi is not exactly a language of science and/or technology, nay, neither of knowledge! 

Honestly, a language is sure admired due to its historicity, due to the multiplicity of its dialects, due to its ethnic spread, et al. Yet a language is considered a lingua franca because of its dominion across different disciplines. 

Look at English, for instance. For one thing, it is highly democratic. From everywhere under the sun, it has adroitly accepted countless words. Unlike "echte Deutsch", for instance, it is untouched by excessive purification obsessions, and, yet, it does not lose its 'origin'-ality. Given such mould-ability, mention any field of specialisation, English assumes the wor(l)d of honour! 

Its standalone vocabulary count, beyond grammatical declensions, is truly huge. Major dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary contain over 170,000 to 600,000 plus active and historical words, continually growing by borrowing from global languages and technical fields.

Marathi must spread its wings in all such directions. German Duden dictionary enterprise, for instance, is such that for each and every major/minor human activity, available is a detailed dictionary which, moreover, is an absolutely authentic source. 

Look at Japan, for instance. Their excellence in scientific and technological fields is such that there is a tough competition when it comes to clearing the international examinations in Japanese, despite the complexity of the script!

Look at Israel, for example! Surrounded by enemies of all sorts, this tiny country has revived its linguistic roots, and inalienably! 

No dominion of any language may grow through mere jingoism. Its children must overcome intellectual/ideational laziness, if the mother tongue is to survice in the AI world! 

Pratima@ Can I point out an interesting fact? Israeli pop singers immediately chose to recite the 'Hanuman Chalisa' in honour of Captain Smit Machchar. Was there a rap monody lamenting the Chabad House tragedy? May be, there was one, and I do not know the existence thereof. Shalom, in brief! 

Quote of the day:                                                             "The limits of my language are the limits of my world," asserts Ludwig Wittgenstein, a great thinker-linguist. 

Word of the day: lingua franca                                     A lingua franca is a shared language used to make communication possible between people who do not speak the same 'native' language. It is also known as a bridge, trade, or auxiliary language. 

Nuggets@ Know thy Humanities

 The Nobel Prize is the most coveted, world wide recognised celebration of geniuses. Mostly, the nominations in sciences, even when often unfair to women, are rarely much contested. When it comes to Literature, however, the opinions may differ sharply. 

Let us look at an example. The year was 2016. The citation maintained that the oeuvre represented "new poetic expressions within the great American tradition." 

Not everybody was so convinced, thereby renewing the debates about pop culture because the crux of the matter was whether pop song lyrics can be great literature! Who was the awardee whose output thus embittered the cultural scenario? 

Of all the quizzes this week, this one is sure timely, yet the easiest, right?  No need to wait till Friday evening, I suppose!

Pratima Agnihotri 

Global Diversity

 Yes, October is the global diversity month, and global diversity is an important theme currently. Let us see if we can explore it a little. 

If we were to speak historically, and beyond the religious divides, diversity becomes dominant with the onset of the industrial revolution. In the prior barter system, there was more of a give-n-take which had a sense of equality. Why, even the feudal lord had to share the produce, if he desired fealty as a feeling and/or in the form of goods/services. 

With the onset of capitalism, initially as mercantile, to be soon followed by the industrial version, the chasm amongst individuals, between social groups started widening, and ad infinitum. 

Yet another, in fact, THE major cause behind diversity issues is colonialism. The racist prejudices thus began to fester. The colonisers, moreover, marauded histories, cultures, educational processes to suit their agendas, and thus were the colonies completely conquered.

These wounds refuse to heal. Certain intellectual mafioso, moreover, make it their business to mal-nourish fraternity! As a result, fractured is the notion of human amity. Each sub-group tries to out-re-present every other in being THE discriminated,  resulting in simmering societies!

What could be the solution? First and foremost, necessary it is to understand the difference between equality and equity. Next, it is always the best strategy to contextualise past and present debates. Most importantly, it is necessary to remember that the cyclicity of the erstwhile victim tending to be the current victimiser can complicate realities beyond repair!

Inclusivity would otherwise be, forever, hampered. In a non-linear, multi-foci reality today, abetted by the AI further, is not it necessary to remember that solutions matter much more than empty debates that hide their own agendas behind all the sound n fury signifying very little! 

Pratima@An aspect of the diversity debate is the gender 'i'dentity. So murky is this discussion currently that certain theorists propound some seventy-two different sexual initiations, a terror in its own way in the AI era. 

Quote of the day:                                                            Argues Audre Lorde, an author and Civil Rights activist, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

Word of the day: equity versus equality.                  Equality means giving everyone the exact same amount of resources, rights, or opportunities. Equity means recognizing that people start from different places and distributing tailored resources and opportunities based on individual needs to reach a fair outcome.

Nuggets@ Know thy Humanities

 The very thrill pumps more adrenaline in  to the illicit affair. Well, at the breakfast table, she is reading a naughty letter by her lover, full of the crazy capers they enjoyed during the their recent rendez-vous. Her husband notices her excitement, and peeps in. 

How does the wicked wife save her imaginary honour? The trademark twist in the tale adds such, and so much, to this very short story. 

Guess who is the author we are talking about. No, the answer is not O'Henry, though both had to go to jail for (financial) frauds. In fact, story writing was almost a means of monetary survival for both. Who is this author who wrote the hyper dramatic short story "The Letter"? 

A clue: He died recently.

 Hope, the re- search-er in you would not allow you to wait till Friday.

Pratima Agnihotri 

Right(-n)ful(l) Rituals

  Let us look at the etymology of the term "shradhdh". In Sanskrit "shr(a)t" means faith, belief, sincerity, devotion.  The "dh" part of the word originates from the verb "dharay" which is to hold. In other words, the term itself means a holding together through sincerity and devotion. 

That spirit of the letters is what I think is important when it comes to the "pitru pandharawada", the fortnight devoted to our ancestors, during the Mahalaya period. Instead of overfeeding the poor recipient, the shradhdh Brahmin, why not give him some 'dakshina', a little money, an amount which he can fruitfully use, and thus bless us happily throughout the following year? 

That is the way we offer our remembrances to our parents at the Mahamrtyunjay Temple. To begin with, we have instituted prizes in their memory. We offer annual donations every death anniversary, in addition. In other words, they are in the proper formal memorial space, too, beyond the forever intimate memories. 

Well, now that I think of it, I have offered them both the 'tarpan' via the proper shradhdha mode twice, with the purest 'Gangajal' at the very source at Gangotri, and at the divine Badrinath with the Alaknanda literally splashing my back. 

Actually, come to think of it, both of them were such clean, straightforward, good, genuine, kind people who lived contentedly. They must have hence attained 'nirvana', I am absolutely sure, happy n fulfilled wherever they are. The 'shradhdha' hence is more a mere memorial ritual right(-n-)fully performed! 

Pratima@ I think of the ritual more as a memorisation born out of grateful memories n immense love for forever prioritising us over their own comforts, their own likes/dislikes, why, their own selves. An eternal 'thank you' full of love marches round my heart hence, beyond any formal shradhdha rituals. 

Quote of the day:                                                         “Nothing (or no one) is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it (and them.)" True, L.M. Montgomery! Hope he would mind my additions (in brackets).

Word of the day: ritual                                               The word refers to an action, ceremony or process which is always done the same way.