Just Juicy!

 It is the typical midday rush, traffic roaring at the usual high decibel, adding sound pollution to the smoggy air of the late winter. Suddenly from somewhere, you hear that lyrically rhythmic sound of bells tied around a cow's neck. 

The nostalgia for that peaceful rural life wafting in the astringent air makes you look for the source of that musical interlude, and then you see it, the simple sugarcane juice stand. In the corner is the machine jingling those bells, a few plastic chairs, a wooden bench, a calendar or two on the simple walls; that is the whole decor of this stall. 

The juice is machine squeezed. Some centers may add a dash of lemon and ginger while the sugarcane is thus getting machine crushed. Add a pinch of salt to it, and without any ice, too, it cools down the hot afternoon around. 

Aai used to like it, too. Often I used to buy it from a wooden crusher driven by a bullock whose owner and his wife would migrate for the season. The simple crusher had a rustic beauty of its own. At home, I used to add grated ginger and a drop or two of lemon with a little salt and cumin seeds. Absolutely heavenly, and a tad tastier than the typical homely lemon juice!

Sometimes, I used to carry home "neera", the juice of  ice apple or palm fruit, and dress it up a little with cumin seeds. She used to like it, too, like the coconut water. In fact, from the Grahak Peth, I used to buy small sachets full of the powder form of coconut water. A glassful of water and the contents of the sache would make a great drink, and she did like it. 

Solkadhi, made of kokum n curds n coriander leaves n ginger n garlic was another favourite. During the summer season, from the Grahak Peth, I used to buy one litre jars of kokum and amla  concentrates, which, too, made our evenings cool n fresh. 

Healthy juices, wealthy with minerals, et al. Wise choice indeed, unmatched, and with a zing of its own!

Pratima@The sugar cane stall reminds me of the traditional jaggery making unit where Papa had taken us during our Kolhapur visit. I remember the unit at Gursale, too, where I had gone with Ajoba, that is, Aai's father. In other words, these health concentrates are memory rich, too!

Quote of the day:                                                      Freshly squeezed, simply sweet are such nature's nectars that revitalise the taste buds! Truly heavenly concoctions whose very sip is nutrient packed perfection! Just like this quote squeezed from very many fizzy drink ads, fashionable but hardly healthy!

Words of the day:                                                  Here is a list of words related to taste. Taste adjectives may describe flavours and sensory experiences, ranging from primary tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami/savory) to intensity and quality descriptors (tangy, rich, bland, or fiery).  Some terms (flavorful, delicious, zesty, smoky, and acrid) help define the culinary profile of the beverages, and of food, too. So says the thesaurus.                                                      As our wor(l)ds today are so full, this week let us learn grammar tomorrow onwards.

This Tale Tells a lot...

 As it is the Maha Shivratri, let me share this tale. For one thing, I love it. Want to know why? To begin with, it glorifies all that is "shiv", that is, pure, holy, 'spirit-ual'. The folk tale, moreover, echoes the beginning of the Ramayana which, in a way, proves that, in the essence, godliness is the quintessential Truth, whether the form be Shiva or Rama. 

Once upon a time, there was this wicked, vicious, heartless hunter. On the Mahashivratri day, he went to the forest for the hunt. He searched for a prey the whole day. He could not get any. Hungry he was.  He did not want to go home empty-handed though. He decided to stay in the jungle that night.

Like all crafty people, he had a cruel plan ready. He knew that at night animals would come to a water source to drink water. Thus would he get prey properly trapped. He went to the brook nearby, got himself a cone of water which he made there and then, and climbed a tree nearby.

As it was the night time, and as the no moon night was approaching fast, in the darkness he did not realise that the tree was a "bilwa" tree. It was a few minutes past the midnight. A fawn came to the waterfront. The hunter eagerly moved, and fast. In the process, from the cone fell a few drops of water, and bilwa patra, the holy leaves, on the Shivling exactly below the tree. 

The hunter had noticed nothing. Without his realising it, in the first hour of the  Mahashivratri, he had performed an abhishek. Something softer must have thus stirred in his newly emergent soul. When the fawn asked him not to kill it, he did not demur. The fawn promised to return after re-uniting with the family. 

In the second hour, it was the doe. The same process repeated itself with the same result and the same promise. In the third hour, it was the turn of the stag. In the fourth hour, that entire family returned truthfully. The hunter was so touched by it that he stood up the branch. The Abhishek this time was not meagre.

Shiva, the gentle, straightforward, kind soul that this deity is, was so touched by the unmeant prayer of the hunter that he appeared before the hunter to bless him. The hunter was truly transformed at that divine moment!

Now let me tell you why I like this tale very much. First and foremost, it shows the simple purity that is the "Shiva" principle. It proves, moreover, that Shiva is so kind and go(o)d-ly that unmeant prayer, too, pleases him. In other words, rituals do not matter as they are often mere religiosity. Most of all, I love the purity, simplicity, honesty of the deer family. Dear are animals! Hence the title of this Mahashivratri special, "this tale tells a lot"!

 Pratima@Even when this folk tale might not have a "Ma nishad: tvam" moment, it shows how the deities are kind to everyone. Hence the choice of this tale, though I had initially decided to write about the Shiv-Parvati vivah, and its symbolic signification.                                                                                                  Quote of the day:                                                       Wrote the great Adi Shankara in "Nirwan Shatakam",  "Chidanand rup:, Shivo ahm Shivo ahm." It means, I am the blessed, forever, soul-felt ecstasy, I am the pure, the divine, the heavenly. 

Word of the day: grateful                         Grateful is how I feel to Lord Shiva. I must confess that my genuine devotion for the great Shankara, the father of Ganesh, my favourite most god, has reached Himalayan heights ever since my Chardham sojourn (I forever remember every moment there/then) was truly "facilitated" whole-ly in a holy way. Not a single problem did I encounter, thanks be to all that is great, good, and divine, the " Shiv" principle ! 

Love in the Times of Market n Hatred

 After the World War II, which saw atrocities such as the Holocaust and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki tragedy, the novel as a literary genre for quite some time dealt with the theme called writing a novel. Such meta-fiction kind of texts were in a way admission of the fearsome fact; namely, after such horrendous injustices, what literary sensibility? In such times of despair burst on the literary horizon the Latin-American literary boom. The title of our blog is a take on the title of one of the major novels by Marquez, the ultimate guru of the genre. 

No, the title is not a mere word play. In a way, it, too, concedes the fact that love is an expensive proposition currently. Look at the day today; in fact, the entire week. A total genuflection it is to consumerism. The give-n-take of Valentine gifts is a market commodification of that great feel of togetherness called love, right? 

No, I am not being cynical. Love is not love when it to the markets n shops bends. Oh, no, it is not a mere heart-shaped goodie of some sort. Congested cafés/bars and overcrowded shops/discotheques may in the mode of done things be-(n)come. Let us not to the listing of typical ways of the Valentine day more details add. Poor Shakespeare must be, as it is, turning in his grave, given this take on his lovely sonnet!

May I tell you yet another reason why such a title to the blog (for) today? You must have read about/seen what happened in the North Block of the Delhi University, right? The very many videos of that horrid incident have gone viral apparently.

Well, if a query, even if it were provocative as is claimed, though the journalist's version does not make one believe so, is going to result in a mob, almost lynching, attack, with the police around, on one single young woman just because she belongs to a certain caste the mob does not like, what kind of society are we living in, and that, too, in the twenty-first century?!?

In a such a hostile climate, that beautiful feeling called love which consists of all that is the best, and would certainly make one a better human(e) being, would be rather like the Wordsworthian "violet by a mossy stone/half hidden from the eye" of such vicious, bitter, and ugly world, and it better be!

Pratima@ As a compensation,  better to read Shakespeare's sonnets or Elisabeth Barret Browing's "How do I love thee?" or Browning's "Prospice" or Edwin Muir's "Orpheus' Dream" or the story of our own Parvati and Savitri or their  modern versions, or listen to great songs, right?

Quote of the day:                                                         "Love is all we need" and "wherever we may be, with you there, it is always home" should be the best wishes for the day. What say?

Word of the day: valentine                                      As valentine means someone loved, hopefully very much, the best valentine could be your work, your pet, your family standing by you come what may, and most of all, your own self, right?

 

Women and Science

 Typically, women and Science might be considered an oxymoron. Women are supposed to be hyper sensitive which they are. That does not, however, rule out being hyper sensible! In fact, any person who is highly sensitive is sharply aware of all possible subtleties of the context, and hence can get hurt by all the subtexts that are carefully hidden. 

Such intuition is a kind of hyper rationality which is the base of the scientific enquiry. In other words, science and women are not diametrically opposed. Rather, they are complementary to each other. 

Want a live proof daily experienced? Even the most uneducated woman knows the medicinal values of every item in her kitchen, and this kind of authentic wisdom might not be codified academically. Yet it works, and most efficiently. 

In an era of Tessy Thomas and G.Madhavi Lata, why talk of the lowest common denominator when it comes to 'women and science'? Well, in a way, both of them are the creamy layer that hides the submerged iceberg of the community's attitude to women and science. Hence the attempt to prove that even illiterate women have a scientific in-sight! Long live the day dedicated to women (with-n-)in science!

Pratima@Most pertinent is the fact that the first ever science fiction, which, moreover, explores the dystopian (im)possibilities of science without a soul/heart was written by a woman who predicted almost two centuries ago what happens when man plays God irresponsibly!

Quote of the day:                                                           "Science and everyday life cannot, and should not, be separated," says Rosalind Franklin. 

Word of the day: rational                                        Rational means based on or in accordance with reason or logic. It is based in a way in the sensory experiences provided by the five senses. Such perception leads to cognition, that is, awareness/knowledge.

Let us learn grammar:                                               Let us look at another sentence structure today. It is s+v+object+object complement. An object complement provides extra information about the object. Look at the following examples. The CSK team chose Dhoni "to be the captain". The committee named her "the president" . We know a child prodigy "who completed his post graduation at fourteen". The expressions within the quotation marks are object complents which can be a noun or a prepositional phrase or a subordinate clause.

Beagle

 Beagle! The very word brings to one's mind that lovely combination of chocolate brown, white and black bundled up in a small body bursting with energy and immense love, right? Yes, my brother, Sanju, has this pedigree breed, and Tashu is one of the loveliest gifts life has to offer. 

However much I may love this cute doggie, today, I am not talking of this best buddy of mine. Rather the reference today is to this famous ship Charles Darwin travelled in during his famous voyage to South America which fed in to his re-search of the idea of natural selection. 

It was an idea that was as radical as the voyage aboard the ships Pinta, Santa Maria and Niña by Columbus who, too, discovered the South Americas, though, by accident, as actually he was looking for that "el dorado", the golden land, yes, our very own India. 

Darwin's diaries of his voyage aboard HMS Beagle made him popular as a (travel) writer. These, moreover, fed in to his radical ideas popularly known as the 'survival of the fittest'. As is always the case with monumental concepts that bring in paradigm shifts, Darwin's notion, too, was over simplified to the level of being dumbed down. Yet another example of this notorious process is Einstein's idea of relativity, right? 

Darwin's notion was revolutionary not only for the scientific world, but also for the societal set-up. The Victorian era, volatile as it was with very many radical changes, was shaken at its base, at its very core by the Darwinian concepts, however simplistically understood. 

Such a sea-change was brought about because Darwin's ideas questioned the religious base. Mankind no longer was made by Lord, the God, as His own miniature version. Rather, he was a descendant of the ape, as were widely and popularly understood Darwin's ideas which brought a paradigm shift in many branches of science! Hence this small little memoir on the occasion of Darwin's birth anniversary on February 12!

Pratima@ As my shippie brother, Raju, would accept, ships as modes of trade, whether ideational or actual, have changed destinies, Odysseys' mythical travel being yet another literary example. 

Quote of the day:                                                   "None can stop an idea whose time has come," asserted Victor Hugo.

Word of the day: anthropology                       Anthropology refers to the study of human societies and cultures, and their development.

Let us learn grammar:                                             A subject complement can be a noun or an adjective. Let us look at examples. Darwin was a scientist (a noun). Darwin's ideas were great (an adjective). This sentence construction s+v+ subject complement is often used 

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.