A simple try at a complex task!

 1) Blest is that town                                                   where forever is Lord's recitation. 

2) They who praise the Lord's deeds                       they be the favoured, the destined. 

3) He who the worlds ruleth                                    Sayeth, in the Kaliyug, Prayer cools. 

4) Ramdas so sayeth                                                 Devotion the best saveth. 

As it is the Ramdas Navami today, here is a modest try to translate one of his abhang's as a tribute to this unique saint and in remembrance of Aai who for years used to go to his abode, the Sajjangad where she learnt his teachings so well that she was one of the examiners for a course that celebrated his divine work! 

Pratima@Given this attempt ( a rough try that needs much refining) at all that is superior-n-fine, today let us not try the grammar bit. 

Quote of the day:                                                 "Devotion complete culminates in knowledge supreme," promises Raman Maharshi.

Word of the day: dedicated.                        Dedicated means devoted or committed to a task or purpose.

The Blame Game!

 There was this questionnaire on a WhatsApp group. I could not read it actually because it was meant for the students. That is to say, the first few entries in the questionnaire were such that only a student could process it. The questionnaire was about the difficulties students from small towns face when they come to a bigger city in search of further opportunities which could include further studies, job openings, settling down in the big city, et al. The way the questionnaire was introduced, it was clear that the blame was directed at English as the medium of instruction.

Absolutely agreed that students should not face any problems just because of the medium of instruction/expression. Could I ask a few basic questions though? To begin with, how many senior college students attend the English Language lectures? 

In any college these days, out of the roughly hundred and twenty students per division, not even twenty would be present! How would anybody learn any subject in absentia?

I am sorry if I sound cynical, but even the so-called post-graduate qualifications of most students appear vacant, in fact, absolutely meaningless, because they would not have  attended even twenty per cent of the total lectures of any subject! How they manage to pass the qualifying exams is anybody's guess!! Mug up whatever material from some cheap guide during the night before the exam, puke up in the answer sheet whatever is foggily remembered,  try n copy as much as possible when it comes to internal assessments, et al, right???

 I have often wondered at the parents' absolute lack of interest in whether their "ward" is attending/not lectures! I know any number of girls from lower middle class families who wander around the city during college timings instead of attending lectures! How come their parents never get to know? Do not parents ever talk to their "wards" about what is happening during lectures, how their studies are going on, what they have learnt newly, and so on?

Often there is this talk about students not being industry ready. How would they be if they do not bother to attend even ten per cent of the total lectures? Forget soft skills! Where are the core, the hard skills, and this sick plight in an era of information explosion! Sad scenario!

Pratima@ In addition to attending lectures regularly, how about appearing for internationally qualifying exams such as the CEFR exams? If the exam fees, payment for lectures for these appear steep, how about cutting down on a few avoidable expenses and comforts?

One of Aai's 'mavashi' (that is, the caretaker) had daughters who expected dresses worth five thousand rupees for Diwali, for their birthdays! Often Netflix packs, regular data packs kind of "necessities" cost thousands, given the all night long binge watching and game playing! All that money could be used to take proper tuitions, right?

Anyways, other inexpensive options, too, are available for language improvement. Instead of working on one's language sincerely, why choose the easy option of blaming the medium???

Quote of the day:                                                        "Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities encourage you more than the objections discourage you," asserts Ralph Marston. 

Word of the day: the blame game.                           The 'blame game' is a situation in which different individuals or groups attempt to assign blame to each other for some problem or failure.

Let us learn grammar:                                                So far we have learnt two basic sentence constructions; namely, 1) s+v and 2)s+v+ direct object (+ to + indirect object).             Now let us look at subject +verb+ subject complement. To begin with, look at the term 'complement'. It does not mean what you would share with the valentine on February 14! That is "compliment".  'Complement', on the contrary, refers to 'complete'. The subject complement completes the meaning of the subject.  Let us explore this sentence pattern tomorrow onwards. 

Creepy crazy foolish behaviour!

 Well, I write articles, stories, translation, et al for different magazines, journals, and so on. I am supposed to get hard copies of these once they are printed. Funny, creepy , crazy stuff happens these days. The so-called courier people  bluff saying that thrice they tried to deliver the material, and the door was closed!

What stupid rubbish! To begin with, I leave for college around 10-ish, and I am back home after college latest by 2 p.m. Earlier, moreover, these very people  used to call me up or message me in the morning, and without fail, the courier fellow would come at about 6 to 7 p m, and deliver the copy. I, moreover, get all sorts of other couriered material! 

Suddenly what happened? Is there some desperate cheap creep who wants to peep in other people's houses? Is some such sick sadist peeping Tom egging on people who do not have anything else to do except loaf around lazily, and keep on yaking in a nonsensical way? 

Logically, to begin with, why must doors be constantly open? Why, moreover, cannot there be a telephone call? The mobile number is there on the envelope. Simpler still, why not knock? Or call out? If a message is sent on the mobile number, I could always to go to the courier office, and collect the book/magazine! As simple as that! Why brainless lies?

The same kind of behaviour with the meter reading as well! The man comes at 8 p.m. because somone in the neighborhood met him, and told him! What stupid rot! 

Why stand around and talk about "chudail" et al? Who pays cheap fools who apparently have nothing to do except to say such nonsense? Absolutely un-"man"-ly behaviour by some third rate cad! 

The cheap creep behind all such nonsense does not realise that NOBODY is thus frightened! Moreover, he (has to be some so-called namesake "he" !!!) can be easily exposed, if worse comes to worse, and the consequences would be tough for this soft-brained fool and his cohorts!

Sick, silly, third-rate behaviour! Thomas Hobbes used to argue that human beings are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish", while human life is "short." The first part of this quote is proved by some sick fools around. Unfortunately, however, their life is as empty as it is long! 

Pratima@ Basically I am amused by such low crooks who keep an eye on each and every movement, and hence i tend to completely ignore them.                                            These days, however, I get the feeling that their (how to say intellectual or moral as they have neither brains not ethics! Tough to believe they are aged adults!) ugliness is such that these stupido's feel that silence is weakness!                                                                  Why, at night, all creepy stuff is attempted such as jumping on roofs, loud shrieks cum chats late at night and early morning, scratching/thumping on walls! Sick behaviour that sucks! What the cheapos do not realise that I am NOT thus frightened. In fact, I am the last person on this earth to be thus terrorised!

Quote of the day:                                                       A "healthy man does not torture others," says Carl Jung. 

Word of the day: threaten.                                     'Threaten' means cause someone to feel vulnerable or at risk; endanger. 

Let us learn grammar:                                       English does not have cases (विभक्ती). The only exception to this rule is "pronouns". They substitute nouns, and their forms as objects are: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them. Let us look at a few examples: I help her.  She scolds him.                                                    The pronoun as an indirect object  can be before the direct object or it can follow the direct object. When it follows the direct object, it is preceded by 'to'. Let us look at a few examples: I explain grammar to them. On her birthday, we give her gifts or On her birthday, we give gifts to her. 

Awesome Architecture

 At an altitude of some eleven thousand seven hundred and sixty feet resides Kedarnath. The square and/or oblong stone slabs, rather blocks, built together by the interlocking system that go into the making of His abode would not be available anywhere in the Himalayas. Yet the temple stands tall there, defying bitter winters, fearsome floods and ravaging time. Even before you enter the temple, its very architecture envelops you in its mystique! 

Awesome architecture! That is the first feel Indian temples always awaken in us. Would you believe me if I insist that right in the midst of the ever expanding Pune full of shrieking horns and shrinking spaces are two temples that are architectural marvels? 

Yes, I am referring to the Trishund Ganapati Mandir and Nageshwar Mandir in Somwar Peth nestled on the bank of  the Nagzari river once flowing freely in this central part of Pune. 

The Trishund Ganapati Mandir is in a way a  document built in stone of the Maratha Kingdom, not to forget the Indian Independence struggle. Why, a plaque in the outdoor wall has a stucco engraving commenting on the 1857 War of Independence as well as the lackdaisical self-obsessed attitude of the very many royalties then. 

With the "Hathyogi Gosavi" contribution to its fame, this marvel has stories galore in each of its images. A unique synthesis of the Rajasthani, Southern, and Marathi architectural styles, each carving, every column and all the corners here are deeply symbolic. 

The Ganesh idol in this temple is unique. Hence the nomenclature of the temple where the stone inscriptions clarify that literally all the deities, Shiva, Vishnu, Dattatreya and the goddesses, the Hamsavahini Saraswati to Gajantlakshmi, reside in this unique space whose structure is such that flood waters drain on their own! 

The nearby Nageshwar temple goes back to the fourteenth century, the Yadav era, and even earlier. It is a unique combo of the "hemadpanthi" style, superimposed by the Peshwa wooden built-up area. A complete unit in itself which once housed everybody associated with the temple, truly special is its canopy which tells a unique tale of how Mughal architecture subtly started influencing the temple construction. 

A must-visit wonders are these lesser known temples where divinity resides in ageless (hi)stories.

Pratima@ The Heritage walk was guided by the duo M/S Shantanu Paranjape and Vaidya. Absolutely infectious was their commitment to the oral narratives of-n-about these two heritage gems that sure need better awareness raising. A great Sunday morning, in brief!

Quote of the day:                                                         "We shape our temples, and thereafter they build us, and forever." Winston Churchill would overlook my re-structuring of his famous quote.

Word of the day: serenity.                                 Serenity refers to a state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled, often characterized by an absence of any stress or anxiety. Derived from the Latin serenus, it signifies tranquility, composure, and quietude.                                                                   The term is often used as a title of dignity for royalty or high dignitaries, especially religious.

The Mumbai Spirit?

 On one of the groups was shared this video of the 9.10 Dombivali Fast as it reaches the railway platform. There was a dare, too. 'Try getting in to this local train.' Honestly, it was pathetic. People were attacking the bogies as if their lives depended on it. 

In a way, they did, too. The local train would take them to Mumbai, and fast. Yet the very sight was inhuman(e) because the scenario totally desensitised, dehumanised and objectified people as living skeletons! 

Those who stay in Mumbai would maintain that such behaviour is a matter of habit. Each one would have his/her story about it. In general, such insensitivity, pushing others so that one gets in to the bogey, literally mowing down someone who falls down in that crazy hustle n bustle to catch the train, just moving on even if someone dies on the tracks, and much worse, the subtle, unstated yet obvious gangster like behaviour inside the bogey! Alll these phenomena revealing the dormant 'Flee it or fight it' animal instinct!

Often all these compulsions are sugar coated and glorified as the Mumbai Spirit. Is it really so? Luckily, for the last decade or so, there have not been any bomb blasts or riots or underworld gang wars in Mumbai. Otherwise, people would travel in the same trains, on the same tracks as if nothing had happened! 

Is such habit formation that leads to a hard, rough core within, such desensitisation, such dehumanisation desirable? Why must life be so mechanical? How (much) must it hurt the idealists, the sensitive, if at all they survive the so-called Mumbai Spirit.  Last but not the least, let us never forget the Malad Incident which exemplifies the worst of the Mumbai Spirit!

Honestly, the video reminded me of T.S.Eliot's "Preludes", "The Waste Land" and the "Hollow men". What cost money when human lives are easily dispensable, and cheap!

Pratima@ Have you noticed that all the acidic jokes on all groups about the Pune 'attitude' are from Mumbaikar's?!? Must be a case of lower self-esteem disguised as a superiority feel! 

Quote of the day:                                                         'Those who follow the crowd are usually lost in it! ' The author is anonymous! 

Word of the day:  expeditious.                                Expeditious  means done with speed and efficiency.

As usual, we learn grammar Monday through Friday. See you on Monday for the "Let us learn" section.

Unki awaz hi pehchan hai

 Remember that immortal song from the film "Kinara"? That lovely assertion "meri awaz hi pehchan hai" has over the years grown to be the signature tune of Lata Mangeshkar. This tribute to her on her death anniversary would like to state that unbelievably varied are the moods of that voice.

 A truism this statement may appear to be.  Let us hence in our blog try an appreciation which possibly is a little different. Very rarely are Lata's "naughty" ditties discussed, right? Sure, she avoided the oomph songs. It seems, she found "abhi na jao chodkar"  'suggestive'! To be very frank, till this date, I have not deciphered why/how! 

Hence this attempt to understand her "bahon me chale" from 'Anamika'. Well, listen to that refrain. The hook line is " baho me chale aao". The queen of pronunciation, rather enunciation, that she was, Lata takes a slight, almost unnoticeable, pause after "aa", and it is heard as "aa o". In my opinion, that pause adds a cute naughtiness, without the open invite sounding vulgar. 

In fact, she has sung the entire song as if it is more a chatter than an overtly seductive 'come hither' type. The whisper effect, enhanced by the impossibly high note (she alone could manage it so musically) stanza finally, adds a subtle allure to that naughtiness, right? May be, it adds to the mystery in the film, too, I suppose. 

Yet another interesting facet of Lata's artistry is that her voice enacts the screen emote, right? Well, the song is picturised on Jaya Bhadhuri. Then she was the sweetheart of Bollywood, surely not the "angry old woman" (just a take on the famous Amitabh persona, no ageism/no aspersions meant, please!) much derided now. 

In my opinion, Lata's rendering of the Majrooh Sultanpuri verse manages to capture the cute innocence (notice, please, in this context Lata's smile in the song. She does not laugh, nor does she simper, she cutely smiles, right?) of Jaya's sweet face then. This R.D. Burman product in the Lata version of naughtiness has all the charm of the Asha sizzle without the sensual provocation, right? No wonder, "unki awaz hi pehchan hai" as our title puts it!

Pratima@At the BMCC, the Internationally renowned project n light artist, Herr Philip Geist from Berlin, Germany, literally performed magic in the evening. 

With two haze machines, four projectors, and a software programme, it was graphic design as the witchery of light, accompanied by lovely sound effects. The College building appeared 'ethe-real'! Beautiful beyond words!

Quote of the day:                                                       "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life, " asserts  Pablo Picasso.

Word of the day: exclusive.                                        Exclusive refers to  something unique, restricted to the person, group, or area concerned. Lata's rendering of the naughty ditties is exclusive, for instance.

Let us learn grammar:                                               A di-transitive verb, as the very name suggests ('di' in Latin means two), uses two objects, direct and indirect. A direct object is necessary for the meaning of the sentence to be complete. Let us look at an example. We learn grammar/music/painting/cookery/gardening, and so on. Unless the object is stated, " we learn ..." would be incomplete. Hence it is the direct object (" what" is the question often asked to locate it).

Now look at this sentence. "She explains grammar to students". The "to students" is extra information, not necessarily crucial to the meaning of the statement. Hence the indirect object ("whom" is the question that places it).

Cancer Cure

  February 4 is the world cancer day. Cancer is the cruellest disease, whatever might be the type or the stage. No doubt whatsoever about it! How do I know it? For the New Indian Express, I wrote articles on cancer. I met a lady whose dis-ease began with breast cancer to morph in to uterine cancer as well. It was tough listening to her lament about how the disease relates to her very i-dentity as a woman. 

Much worse was writing about childhood cancer. Be it the six month old baby with eye cancer or a six year old who played innocently without knowing what was imminent, meeting such victims of the cruel disease was heart-rending. 

Equally tragic is getting to know the last stage, beyond cure cases. Palliative care, the inevitable use of morphine as the pain killer at that stage were issues which moved me beyond tears when I wrote an article on palliative care, a rather novel idea in India in the early years of the twenty-first century. 

All these are instances of cancer assaulting physically. Much worse is the cancer cruelly cutting in to the societal space. Do you know its nomenclature? Yes, it is the fear of, the avoidance of, the rejection of excellence. 

Yes, take any field of the public sphere, or private space for that matter, the hunting down of excellence is unmistakable. The worst case scenario, however, is in academics. This cancer is so wide-spread that, at times, its morbidity is frightening, especially because its nodes, hence spread, are everywhere!

What is the panacea? Tough to tackle as there seems to be an apathy at all which is terribly terrifying, what with the AI shrinking possibilities galore! 

Pratima@ Cancer is an auto-immune disease. That is to say, the body seems to rebel against itself. Hence this metaphor!

 Mathew Arnold had a beautiful image for such a tragic trajectory, 'ignorant armies clashing by night', not knowing whom they are fighting, finishing off, friends or foes!

Quote of the day:                                                        "Not all monsters hide in the shadow. Most smile soothingly during the day." An anonymous but apt quote!

Word of the day: stellar.                                          The word, close to the celestial, that is, the starry firmament, means 'of the best quality', excellent.

Let us learn grammar:                                              What is a transitive verb? The very term explains it, right? 'trans' is 'across'. A transitive verb hence is a verb whose action/activity, whether corporal/physical or abstract, is carried across the object. Let us look at examples. Children love pizzas. Students bunk lectures. I love reading. Poets use imagination. 

Incidentally, the thumb rule is to ask " who" to find out the subject of the sentence, and  "what" to find out the direct object. Tomorrow we shall further discuss the direct and the indirect object(s) when we shall try to understand di-transitive verbs.