Regime!?!

 A Ph. D. scholar must use terms carefully, as she sure should know the technicality behind that usage, right? Well, that is a basic premise! Given, however, the Indian education scenario, where Ph.D's are dime a dozen and quite some routine, is it any surprise that the furious find of the current 'revolution', as it is unfolding in the capital, should grandly talk of 'regime' change!?! 

Sure, Madame may differentiate and distinguish between student sit-in's in Delhi versus Ranchi! That is but okay, as the political bias and ideological inclinations have never been a hide, but seek she doth them openly! 

Imagine though using a term like 'regime (and its change)' so very loosely! Apparently in some undated (that is, I am not sure of the date) interview she talks of how Bangladeshi students are her thought leaders as far as regime change in India goes. 

Forget the fact that India is NOT Bangladesh from where migrants move in. Does the great lady understand the term 'regime change'? To begin with, 'regime' is related to monarchy and/or autocracy, and its various modes. I am not much in to politicking, but I sure do know that my country, and/or its governance, is a democracy, however flawed it might be, or it may appear to be. 

A cursory look at even a basic simple Wikipedia entry is sure to convince anybody moderately literate that regime, as its current politicking usage goes, is first used circa 1792 at the height of the French Revolution!

 Reference hence is also always to the 'ancien regime'. The etymological roots of either term is from Latin/Old French 'regere' which continues even today in to daily usages such as diet regime, exercise regime, et al, implying authoritarian, dictatorial, regulatory procedures. 

Well, I may not forever flag the famous red book, with-in blank or otherwise. I, however, sure do know that every five years  ordinary common citizens like me can vote governments out, if they wish to. India, in brief, does not need regime change, given its post Independence constitution in every sense of the term.

Pratima@ I do not know enough about the tool kits of the deep state, et al, which Mary Milben types are swearing by.  I am sure though that the very many checks and balances in the indian institutional structure, refined over the last seven decades, are bulwark against any misuse, even by the ambitious fear/hatemongers cum demogogues lusting after power. Yes, it IS the parliament, and NOT the streets, that would continue to 'govern' ( note please, not to 'rule') India! 

Quote of the day:                                                          Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, “Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”

Word of the day: checks and balances                       Checks and balances is a fundamental constitutional principle where different branches of government hold distinct powers that can limit, monitor, and restrain the actions of the other branches. 

Simply soulful!

 A very happy news dominated this morning. Since it is a social media product, tough to know how far true or valid or authentic it might be. If true, even if just by a little fraction, during the Navratri, happy happy times seem to be here again. Oh, no, I am NOT talking of the grand Garba get-together's. 

It seems, soon there gonna be a sabbatical of someone! As this special someone is, it seems, in the annual vacy mood, hopefully the hullabaloo over hawaa-hawai issues, in other words, the quite airy(but not exactly)fairy fights, heating up intolerably our public sphere in this already hot October, might cool down a little. 

As such happy, happy days are here again, it is but obvious that I would remember my favourite most flower. Ah, a deep inhale of its fragrance n for weeks on end, my nostrils themselves are fragrance incarnate. 

Yes, indeed, no other flower is as unique as the bakuli flower. It is small, unlike the flashy sunflower. It is pale yellow, unlike the multi-coloured rose. In fact, when it dries, it is rusty brown, like a mix of copper tapered with bronze. 

Known in English as the Spanish Cherry/ medlar/bullet wood flower, this delicate existence hidden behind lush green leaves is the essence of eternity itself, as its gentle fragrance is forever. Yes, even when it dries, my dear little 'bakuli' continues to stay, and fragrant 

A symbol for me of all that is permanent, pure, simple but genuine, the beatific bakuli flowers stand for an eternity that neither  time nor its state, fresh or dried, can stale. Sitting under the bakuli tree and getting a shower of its beautiful bloom spread on n around you is heavenly. In brief, its gentle but permanent aroma therapy is simply soulful! 

Pratima@ It seems, the fruits as well as wood of this forever lush green tree are very useful. Hence in Malaysia, and in the South-east Asia, it is the 'regional' tree.  Sustainability signified, simply but surely, in brief! 

Quote of the day:                                                          "Flowers…are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities in the world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson puts its so succinctly.

Word of the day: mimosa                                           The bakuli flower is a type of mimosa, a generic term for very many beautiful blooms. The word  is derived from the Greek word μῖμος (mimos), 'actor' or 'mime', and the feminine suffix -osa, 'resembling', suggesting its 'sensitive leaves' which seem to 'mimic conscious life'!

Memories haunt!

 Certain memories! How they haunt forever! Usha. She was my junior. May be, we were almost the same age because I have completed my post-graduation at a very early age. I had helped her with her French, and with the contents of her essay in a contest which won her a French trip. 

Naturally she cared for me. The Eiffel Tower paperweight she bought me from Avignon is a keepsake. After she got married, our rôles changed slightly. Hers was a love marriage with a Tambram. 

She was a Telugu Brahmin, and a very close relative of a very very powerful leader. She had adjustment issues within the marriage, and I was the counsellor who tried to convince her how minor disagreements with in-laws could be silly misunderstandings. 

Here was a quite funny situation, a Maharashtrian high caste Brahmin girl trying to explain the Tamil symbolism to a Telugu girl. Yet the underlying civilisational cultural bond seemed to carry us through, thereby making us better friends.  

Unfortunately, she died within a fortnight of her baby's birth. I still cannot forget that small infant, an exact replica of his late mother, wailing away even when the poor grandma was trying her level best to comfort him. 

The haunting bit, however, is still more vivid. Her husband, we had not met much, but he knew me as Usha's best well-wisher, was obviously overcome with intense grief. 

Tearily he announced to the dead body. "Usha, see, Pratima is here!". I am ready to swear. Her body, tied to that pier/wooden stretcher, literally tried to get up! My other friend, who had come along, too, was shocked beyond words, mentioned it later, too.

I had never seen a 'body' before. The whole night I could not sleep. Yet this incident has forever convinced me that life might go on(!?!) even after the body dies!?! Why then, for the sake of your weird notions of fun, hurt, harm n harass human beings, when alive?

Much more, I understood what post-partum depression may do. Hence, however much feminism may be mocked, yes, there ARE certain, in fact, very many, womanly sensitivities that DO need deep considerations, and beyond all the shrill n empty sloganeering by n of career feminists.

Most important of all, the incident has made me forever grateful to Aai who was down with high fever when she was eight months pregnant with me, yet in the ninth month, she travelled in a meter gauge train some six/seven hundred kilometers, while the late April sun beat mercilessly. Within a week of reaching her parents' place, a small town, she walked to the hospital for a normal, non-cesarean delivery, while the nurses were brutal, and doctors indifferent! What all a mother's love can bear!

Pratima@Well, tragedies cannot last forever, and often have a funny end. Well, Usha's husband had asked me to inform a Tamil professor, all of them, unlike me, were in to Linguistics, about Usha's unfortunate demise. It was the week-end. So I decided to inform his colleague who lived on campus so that the message would reach him.                                                                                I had no idea that the lady was sweet on him! First she obsessed about finding out if I had called him up. After convincing her somewhat hopefully that I knew neither his phone number nor his address, she calmed down on that account.                                                                Next followed a simply wow conversation, with monkeys chattering madly overhead, hidden in the canopy. She was insisting that it was a murder.                                                                          I tried to politely point out that it might not be so, at least because Usha was closely connected with very powerful people. Then she started haranguing about how the need for such a murder (why, a 'son' was born, no?) is like the desire for sex!                                                  Thereafter, I did what all students are excellent at, obediently stand in front of the teacher, head bowed down, eyes half open, ears and brain completely closed, tightly shut indeed! Feminism sounds fun, if n when shallow!

Quote of the day:                                                           "Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Wise 'saw' as ever by Oscar Wilde!

Word of the day: postpartum depression               Postpartum depression (also called perinatal depression) is a medical mood disorder that can happen during (late) pregnancy or after giving birth.

Nuggets@ Know thy Humanities

 Translation takes various forms. One of the seminal modes is 'transmuting' a text in to a film. Of course, bibliophiles look down upon the process as a demeaning of a book, and we have pj's of the "donkey grazing at the corner dumpsite preferring a book over a film, as it is in better taste'', et al, variety.

Who is the linguist-scholar who theorised this process extremely interestingly and elaborately? Which term did he use to describe this process? How did he define this process? 

Pratima Agnihotri

Fear(-n-)some Future!

 Yes, I am absolutely of the opinion that one should forever be a learner. Indeed, at no point, can one say that one knows everything about one's chosen area. Surely not, given the information era! 

Yes, it is better to be a jack of many subjects and a master-cum-student in the area you love, which you have chosen as a passionate pursuit that lasts a lifetime. 

Well, currently, however, the AI seems to question these very (basic) premises. It seems to be progressing at a supersonic speed. You complete a course, quite a basic one for sure, you feel now I would practise it to perfection, and, voilà, in that zilch second, the AI industry springs a new surprise on us, the poor innocent unsuspecting world! 

At times, the changes are minor. Often, they are yet another quiver for the same bow! Yet these arrows are quite life threatening because, in no time, across the world, that area, Montessori to M.D. (incidentally, currently, a Ph.D. doctor is, well, less said, the better!) gets saturated to excess. And, so on, and so on, ad infinitum! 

Honestly, one pities the GenZ, Gen alpha beta kappa, et al, given such a future. Sure, in a lifetime, one should wear (n tear) a few professional hats simultaneously. One must multi-task. Yet, given the speed with which the AI shifts gears,  in the future, one's crown would sure be sans hats, sans hair, sans brains! Any wonder at all that the GenZ protests are hare-brained!!?!!

Pratima@ Very soon I would re-write the seven (st)ages Shakespeare immortalised! Yes, would sure share them on our blog, too.

Quote of the day:                                                           "When we think we're multi-tasking we're actually multi-switching. That is what the brain is very good at doing - quickly diverting its attention from one place to the next. We think we're being productive. We are, indeed, being busy. But in reality we're simply giving ourselves extra work," argues Michael Harris. Yes, indeed! 

Word of the day: hare-brained                                  Hare-brained means crazy and unlikely to be successful. 

Nuggets@ Know thy Humanities

 Journalists can at times coin concepts and related phrases that may define an entire discipline. An example of this phenomenon, which academics would typically love to hate and look down upon, is Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov's fourfold process.

Bezmenov was a Soviet journalist for the Novosti Press Agency. In 1970, he visited New Delhi as a member of the Soviet mission. During that tour, Bezmenov defected to the West, and the U.S. re-settled him in Canada as per an arrangement between the US and the Canadian security agencies.

May be, such turns and twists in his career helped him define how a political system, nay, the country itself, is brought in to the fold of the powers that be. 

Name the four stages Bezmenov talks about.  The discussion might help many understand the turmoil brewing in the countries neighbouring India. Critics may accuse the CJP of being a stooge of the Deep State, et al, trying to thus disrupt India itself. 

Pratima Agnihotri

Lies lead ....?!?

 I would not know about you. Personally though, I love fairy tales and folk tales. They have such a wealth of wisdom. One such story is Pinocchio's. Yes, he is the boy whose nose grows longer n longer when he lies! Good that it is just a story about a fictional wooden puppet, and it was created by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi in his 1883 novel "The Adventures of Pinocchio."

If the Pinocchio phenomenon were real and operational right now, havoc it would create! Look at our poor Dipke. Yesterday itself, our blog sympathised with his grievous loss, right? Well, there is a proper video wherein the police are gently and repeatedly informing him that every possible help would be extended to him, given the unfortunate circumstances. And, yet, huge propaganda goes on and on about the dictatorial government that ignored deaths of dear n near ones! Let us not even mention the Gurudwara lie by the CJP which is so very irresponsible, in addition.

How about Elon Musk who declared that the Indian Prime Minister is M/S Ambani! Unlike certain characters hereabouts, he  seems to have forgotten the rhyming Adani! Well, the hard truth about why he is grumbling about not getting the portion of the pie, eh, the huuuuuge number of Indian internet users whom he would so kindly like to serve, is hidden in the forests in North-Eastern India. If you were to read up the details, you, too, would agree that lies lead to, luckily for the twenty-first century not to Pinocchio noses, but to a loss of credibility.

Career politicians in our country who are lusting after Lady Power, too, seem to have never read the fairy tale during their school days. Otherwise, they would have, like the common indian, celebrated the ISRO mission EOS-05 which would help avert large scale destruction due to natural calamities, not to forget, the excessively friendly border activities by certain neighbours!

Why lie through the teeth? It entertains the audience who chuckle at your mendacity, and at your loss of credibility which, in the long run, is sure to take you away from your 'power'-ful ambitions!

Pratima@ Lies, lies, every where!/How any truth to find?

Quote of the day:                                                              "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."  So summed up Friedrich Nietzsche the after effects of what lies lead to!

Word of the day: propaganda                                          Propaganda is information and ideas, that may be false or exaggerated, but which are used to gain support for a political leader, party, and so on.