Brain Matters

   A.C. Doyle whose excellent creation, Sherlock Holmes whom most all love, was himself a doctor. Hence the quote "I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is mere appendix" is not a mere stylistic smart. In a way, it is the nutshell truth about human existence. 

Yes, brain matters, and the most. Only when the brain is dead is an individual taken off all life support. Hence this blog post about brain matters. We are going to briefly look at epilepsy, autism and Down's Syndrome because such awareness is necessary. This is the Autism Awareness week, while very recently was celebrated the world epilepsy day. 

Why these dis-eases? Certain causes are known, while more are being explored still. Epilepsy, a neurological disorder, is in a way an off-shoot of excessive electrical discharges in the brain cells. Often caused due to traumatic head injury, especially during very early childhood, such as the baby falling off the bed/cradle, like the other two, the cause could be perinatal  as well.

The perinatal condition refers to the temporary lack of oxygen supply to the baby's brain during the birth process. Autism and Down's Syndrome are often associated with genetic issues, too. Autism, for example, is caused by the 'fragile X syndrome', while Down's Syndrome is the result of an extra copy of Chromosome 21. 

The mother's age and health matter, too. Late pregnancy, shooting blood pressure and/or diabetes during pregnancy, infections during pregnancy are often cited as possible causes behind these dis-eases.

Where lies the cure? I suppose, first and foremost, in calmly accepting the reality. Luckily, these days, there are very few families, at least in cities, who would associate such conditions with a curse or divine anger, et al. Yes, the much debated urbanisation can occasionally be actually good, right?!? 

Moderate exercise, balanced diet, home-cooked food, regular dosage of required medication are the base of the therapy. A person with epilepsy can lead an extremely normal life, especially by avoiding the triggers. As for autism and the DS, some light professional training which can keep the lifelong patient permanently but easily occupied is necessary.

Similarly, parents must take clear cognizance of who would look after them during their adulthood, especially after the parents themselves are no more. When I wrote an article on  the DS and autism for the 'New Indian Express', I visited an institution which, on the lines of the old age home, took care of such adults who were thus provided with all basic amenities and necessities, including some light occupation. The Director of this institute was insistent that parents clearly write their will!

Necessary, I suppose, given the heartless world without soul where even the so-called normal are not treated decently! At times, the autism and DS patients might have a gift for a particular vocation. Here is hoping that it is detected and supported soon!

Pratima@ It is common knowledge these days that there are multiple intelligences. May be, if a person has better spatial/visual/auditory/kinetic intelligence, hope it is recognised and supported at the earliest, which might change the very direction  of many lives.

Quote of the day:                                                           "Brain health is not a destination, but a process. How you drive matters, not where you are going," says Noam Shpancev.

Word of the day: brain                                              The brain is the complex, three-pound master organ of the central nervous system that controls all body functions, emotions, and thoughts. The brain is encased in the skull and  is protected by membranes called meninges, which are bathed in cerebrospinal fluid. 

The brain comprises the cerebrum (cognition/motion), cerebellum (balance/coordination), and brainstem (involuntary functions), acting as a central processor for sensory input which leads to cognition, thought, sensory processing and motor control which initiates voluntary movement and coordinates balance. The main cause behind human behavior and emotions, often it is compared with a computer.

Sacrificial Goat!

  Yes, I do know the term is "sacrificial lamb". There is a lovely description of this "divine"(!) spectacle in Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn". Yet what our blog is today going to discuss hardly deserves the sanctity traditionally associated with the sacrificial lamb. Anyways, personally, I am absolutely against any animal sacrifice. 

Yet the horror we are going to discuss needs the term. Hence the title. Actually, I do know that these poor animals are very sensitive. Just behind our backyard, in the chawl, stayed a family who kept a goat. I used to feed the kid banana, and all other such extremely edible, leaves from our garden. He used to recognise my voice from some fifteen feet away. On the day before Eid, he knew instinctively what was going to happen to him. 

He was fed some soporific. Till he could keep his eyes open, he kept on staring at me, and chewing the banana leaves as cud. I was ready to buy him off from the owner, and give him total freedom in a forest. My Muslim colleague felt that such a move would cause a communal riot. So I had to keep quiet, though I almost cried my eyes out. 

Next year, that family got a nanny goat who had three kids, and she was herself a little lame. She would complain to me, creating a huge ruckus if any one of her kids was taken away from her sight. I had to console her not to worry, and that all was well. Believe me, she would whimper, but calm down. In brief, my sympathies are with any/every goat, gender/age being no bar.

Yet I am going to use that expression, given the theme of our blog today. Yes, let us discuss the sordid saga of Kharat. No, I have not watched any of the videos. I possibly cannot even imagine watching any such trash. 

Yet every newspaper, each YouTube has the gory deeds in sordid details. Why, our own C.M., otherwise a genuinely sensible man, mentioned Kharat's horrific activities in graphic details, it seems, in the Vidhan Sabha, from whence it jumped even on to college campuses where students' language is anyways awful, full of ugly expletives, and so on. Remember the theme of our blog yesterday? 

Well, to come back to that horror called Kharat, based on what is reported, I feel that currently he is used as the sacrificial goat so that everybody else involved can appear squeaky clean. 

Let us begin with women. Even a virgin has an intuitive inkling when a man is "thinking" in an ugly way about her. In Kharat's case, the so-called victims are all much married women with children. Tough to believe their "sixth sense" did not warn them. How come none of them reported to their families about some ugly drink?

I refuse to believe that they could not tell their families/husbands. These very wives and daughters-in-law would fight their throats hoarse/dry over minor most issues! True, there might have been hypnotism. Yet why would they return to such an ugly place the nth time? Is it the case that they, too, wanted all the benefits, and hence had a silent, subtle approval of/agreement with the entire process? 

Look at the VIP's. Sure just a pic cannot incriminate anyone, especially in the AI era today which makes any "photoshop" blush, given its 're-creation-al' abilities! Yet how could very many ministers, given the reach and the power they have, not know that weirdo? After such knowledge, what faith!?! 

Hence the niggling doubt that ALL involved were perfectly aware of what they were participating in. They most probably wanted to reap the benefits of such horror rituals. Now that all is exposed, to prove themselves clean, they are pretending innocence! 

Hence that awful godman(!!!) appears to be a sacrificial goat, conveniently carrying all the blame! Given the staggering financial deals, tough it is to believe that the involved were not aware of all the murky muck. 

That social eye sore, Kharat, is like the Walya figure whom Narada meets in the forest! His wife has reportedly run away, all the mean and mighty have deserted him, all his former devotees darken his reputation. All behave as if all of them, at least in their late twenties, were innocence personified whom the wicked wretch worked in! 

No, absolutely NO sympathies for the crook. Yet this is just to wonder at the hypocrisy and the washing off hands of all the involved. Hence the title of our blog!

Pratima@ 'A saint till caught' seems to be the mantra of such goings-on. Is it the work of superstition? Tough to believe! Generally, the rural folks are street smart when it comes to the ways of the world! They have quite some time on their hand to gossip about the goings-on, imaginary and/or real. I do have hence the suspicion that ALL the involved knew what was up, willingly joined in, and now that all that trash has spilled over out in public, they are pretending to be victims! Hence the title of the blog! 

Quote of the day:                                                         'Better not to play a victim to the circumstances you yourself created!'                                           Based on an Instragram post quoted on the Google. 

Word of the day: fake                                                  Fake refers to something not genuine, intended to deceive by imitating something real, or the act of simulating/forging something. It covers counterfeit objects (e.g., fake art), fraudulent actions (e.g., faking a signature), and bogus imposters like Kharat and his sham followers. 

Whose fault at all?

 My lecture was on. Some sixty to seventy students. Not a bad number at all, especially in the second semester. I was teaching a poem. Somebody banged on the door hard. Furious, she was fuming. Some parent. Her very style, disturbing thus an on-going lecture, told a lot about her, even if she must have been so egged on by someone. 

I told her to wait it out for five minutes more, as the lecture would get over then. Most reluctantly she agreed. After the lecture, I found out that she felt her son should get more marks. I chose to show her his answer sheet. 

Then she burst out, "Oh, with such a paper, I would have given him minus marks." Next I showed her the attendance sheets. His was nil. Then she whimpered once. Almost in tears, she said, "He leaves home for college. Where all I can keep an eye?" Next she blamed the poor husband whose plight one could undestand, given her behaviour. 

Somehow I consoled her, asking her to send her son to meet me. He came, and actually said that he was so glad that his mom told him that his English teacher told her not to scold him. I asked him to appear for the re-exam, guided him about how to prepare for the exam. So the chapter, designed to surefire trap me, ended quite satisfactorily for me. 

Ever since I have repeatedly thought about who is possibly responsible for students' failure? Mothers who tell sons it is okay, nay, fun, to mock, ridicule, insult elders just because they are not hi-fi fashionable? Mothers who tell sons that Standard XI is for fun and enjoyment? If the base is weak, how would the studies progress at all, right? 

Mothers who egg on sons to be 'modern' and indulge in drinking, doing drugs, speeding, being 'friendly' with girls? Mothers who quite openly support their sons' baiting? Mothers who do not stop sons from forming bad friendship, instead, stupidly encourage it under the garb of 'openness'?

Who would harness such negative energy? Such kind of 'modern', 'liberated' women are so drunk on 'they alone, topmost, besides them, their parental household, being RIGHT' that the husband and his family have no other alternative but to keep quiet because anyways, the conveniently over-indulgent woman would not listen, instead would stage a full scale drama? 

Whose fault it is indeed when futures are thus darkened? Like not upskilling oneself these days, even when the whole world is chattering about job loss otherwise! Felt it necessary to pen it all because yesterday had the misfortune of meeting a student who had a terrible accident due to over-speeding, obviously under the influence of we all know what! 

Pratima@ Remembered yet again the story of the thief who in an open court bit his mother's ear as she had indulgently laughed at his erstwhile 'simple, simple' misadventures!!! 

Quote of the day:                                                           "What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin, " says Henry Ward Beecher. 

Word of the day: Discipline                                       Discipline is the practice of training oneself or others to obey rules, maintain order, and follow a structured approach to achieve goals, thus enabling consistency, self-control, and the overcoming of procrastination. Actually, it is a form of self-love, and is essential for personal, professional, and academic success. 

And so he plays his part

  Everybody, I am sure, without exception, would place the line that makes the title of our blog today. Yes, it is penned by Shakespeare. It is from Act II, Scene VI of "As you like it". "Why should everyone know it? We are not in to English Literature." Is that your defense? Very weak, let me you tell you, because there are certain texts from the field of Eng Lit that trail you like a shadow.

The best two examples of such forever texts that haunt you throughout your school/college days are "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth and "All the world is a stage" by William Shakespeare. You meet them repeatedly in your scholastic career; in fact, so often that once one of my PG students asked me most innocently if Wordsworth wrote only one poem. 

Shakespeare was saved from such embarassing reductionism because I was teaching "Elizabethan Literature" to her batch. Well, you know how teachers of literature after all are. She got an earful of a detailed demo of how the same text would yield different meanings at different 'stages'. Sure the passionate exposition must have entered that space between the two ears because, thereafter, she never bunked a single lecture. 

Well, that oft anthologised Shakespearean excerpt describes the fifth stage, the justice or the judge, which ends with the line that is our title today. This specimen has 'a fair round belly.' It is 'lined with good capon' which is a wonderful comment on his total corruption, despite 'the eyes severe' and 'wise saws' and 'modern instances' which is a superb mock at his hypocrisy. 

Why remember all that jazz today? Have not we suffered enough during our school/college days? Are these your queries? Well, the Shakespearean judge/justice always reminds me of Pontius Pilate who, despite knowing the rank lies, ordered Jesus to be crucified, and that, too, between two criminals, two thieves. He conveniently justified himself, too, as somebody who thus avoided a riot that was not to be!

In my opinion, a Pontius Pilate always hides inside most human hearts. Whenever we overlook, ignore, avoid the obvious truth, be it a minor instance or a major issue, the Pontius Pilate in us overpowers the innocent cleanliness in us with "modern saws", the brazen half-truths, lies and self-justifications, and so much so that the only assertion/prayer possible, absolutely unlike Jesus', is " forgive  not, Oh, Lord, such all" because "they perfectly very well know what they are doing"! 

Pratima@ The Good Friday is as much about how to be angelic like Jesus, as it is subtly about how not to be a Pontius Pilate because it kills all that is human(e) in hearts! 

Quote of the day:                                                          "No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it," asserted Stefan Zweig, one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century. 

Word of the day: sanctity                                        Sanctity refers to the state of being  sacred, or inviolable, often implying supreme importance or worth and immense respect. 

A Distinct Interpretation of the Heavenly Hanuman

 Chaitra Pournima is unique for us, the Hindu's. It is centrally significant for both, the Dutt disciples and the Hanuman devotees. As the occasion is thus doubly important, and as typical interpretations are aplenty, let us try something different, distinct, distinguished. 

Let us today briefly discuss "El mono gramático", a 1970 Spanish prose-poem cum reflections on literature, language, meaning making among other such issues important for creative analysis and criticism. It is written by Octavio Paz. He wrote it when he was the Mexican ambassador to India.

In a way, it has aspects of the travelogue genre. Paz describes his journey to Galta, a city near Jaipur, which has ruins of ancient temples, with lots of monkeys around. Thence he takes a mental flight to Hanuman's mythic leap to Lanka.

What begins as an exploration of space, time, decay and permanence/fixity, becomes a deep look at language, too. Is language a god given structure, signified in this text by Hanuman?

In this prose-poem, Hanuman is presented as the ninth grammarian, a master of language, a bridge between the "shashtras"  that is, the sacred scriptures and the unprocessed, non-refined thought.

In other words, Hanuman creates order out of chaos. Yet, given the meandering monkeys in Galta, unmistakable is the fact that once upon a time, at least in his childhood days, he was a mere monkey, too, wildly jumping from branch to tree. Using this as a metaphor, Paz wonders if language is the rigid grammar (Hanuman) or the (simian) wild, free, meaning making activity. Thus he proceeds to his core idea of how to make meaning, how to create a poem, a literary text. 

Interesting ideas! Hence i thought, i would try n present them in brief. Hope your mental wheels have started whirring at the supersonic speed at which Hanuman flew and burnt everything throughout the golden Lanka, the symbol of rigid egotism. Thus let us re-turn to the religious layer of meaning making. Happy Chaitra Pournima!

Pratima@ On this Pournima day, Pune was literally pulversied by torrential rains that lasted for almost an hour. Absolutely MAD rains here! Simply unbelievable!! Just lashing the cityscape!!! Horrible thunder and lightning!!!! Many roads turned to rivers, many low lying areas in to temporary lakes!!!!!

Aai would have been terribly frightened. She did not exactly like thunder and lightening, phenomena which i absolutely adore. She used to find monkey-ish my capers to watch the thunder and lightening.

Once, after conducting a PG lecture, I had walked back home through such a storm. When I presented to her my grand adventures of walking through the rain-dimmed vast expanse of the institute ground, she felt worried, and described the lightening in the rural areas, and was agitated by the possible dangers.                                                                                                 Sweet sentimentality of a loving mother, much missed!

Quote of the day:                                                           "I always like walking in the rain. No one can then see me crying," states Charlie Chaplin.

Word of the day: Criticism                                        Criticism, says the dictionary, is the act of evaluating, analyzing, or expressing judgment on the merits and faults of someone or something, ranging from constructive, improvement-oriented feedback to negative fault-finding. It is essential for artistic, literary, and intellectual discourse, focusing on providing reasoned judgment, interpretation, and analysis. 

As you treat others...

 Reciprocity is the base of all relationships. If you knowingly and constantly, and without any valid reason, except your own mean jealousy, cupidity and/or cruelty, ill-treat, insult, humiliate an innocent person who has not harmed you in any way, who has instead tried level best to humour you, to adjust with you, even to honour you, what would happen in the long run? 

Such a person would avoid you like the plague or corona itself, right? Let me give you a few example. Suppose you constantly harass a woman who NEVER was, is NOT and WILL never be interested in you, do you think she will like you because you ill-treat her, insult her, harass her by spreading vicious nonsense about her?

Suppose somebody suffers the misfortune of being related to you! You eternally humiliate such a person knowingly but subtly. Let me give a few wicked examples. You throw food at her. You throw a chapatti in her plate. As if she is a beggar. Such cruel behaviour is something what a loving master would not do to a pet! If at all you give a gift, you demean the person by consciously choosing something of a lower value, of a cheaper price, unlike the gifts you give your favourites, 

The person never ever comes empty-handed to your place (Difficult to call it home!). You knowingly let the gift go waste, or, right in the sight of the person, give it to your maidservant. If the person has the misfortune of being related to you and is trying to continue the status quo for the sake of the family feel, you train/brainwash your childish brainless aged offsprings to humiliate the person in subtle yet obvious ways.

Just because the person is superior to you in every possible way, you spread nasty rumours, you gossip in mean ways, you consciously ignore every success of the person you hate for no rhyme no reason, while praising to skies some extremely ordinary achievement of your favourite(s). Very knowingly, very subtly, very viciously, you target and alienate the person.

What would happen sooner or later? First and foremost, the person would start avoiding you, as peace matters more to such people than sick confrontations with shallow people who are knowingly mean, and would never accept their conscious mean activities, even if concrete proof were provided. Such a victim is, moreover, wise enough with a better perspective to know that there have been vicious cruelties on a huge scale such as the Holocaust or the Partition.

Fair is yet the fact that somehow there is in the entire universe a sense of justice. Even if your unfortunate victim chooses to ignore your conscious viciousness, somewhere, somehow, it is registered, and you would have to pay for it personally! Why, even at non-universal, human level, international tribunes try to committ themselves to justice.

Reciprocity sure works at the universal level. Harass, harm, hurt a person who has the misfortune of being related to you personally and/or profesionally, it bounces back at you, and zillion times more! 

Pratima@ There is another interesting version of such phenomena. There are authors who want every line of trash they dish out to be read and praised to skies, while they would never read nor praise a word by others.

Similarly, I had a colleague, a Head of the Department, who would always grandly talk of justice. When it, however, came to actual help in small or big ways, even to students, her actual actions would speak the lowest. Why such duplicities?                                                             Respect and get respected!

Quote of the day:                                                         "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest," asserts Elie Wiesel.

Word of the day: Reciprocity                                    Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging goods, services, or social gestures for mutual benefit, based specifically on the principle of returning kindness, favors, or obligations. It is a fundamental social mechanism fostering cooperation, obligation, and fairness, specially and frequently used to build trust in relationships, international relations, and in business related activities such as marketing. 

The End of what once was supposed to be a beginning!

 March 31, 2026! Indeed a special day in Indian history as, on this day, finally and formally was declared the end of Naxalism. The dooms day of the "Red Terror", in brief, happens to be the historic March 31, the dawn of the new, f(r)ought financial year.

At this stage, let us not get in to the ideological warfare. Instead, let us look at a cinematic and a literary re-presentation of the issue to understand the subtle human(e) resonances. 

Let us begin with Gulzar's debut as a director, his early seventies' film "Mere Apne", a Hindi remake of Tapan Sinha's Bengali film, based on a Bengali short story. 

"Mere Apne" deals with the angst of a defeated idealist who dreamt of justice, fairness, equality for all. In a way, he had found the then nascent Naxalbari Movement as a mode of liberation from oppressive forces of all sorts.

Instead his naive faith gets him, an intelligent scholar who could have made something of his life, to descend down to the lowly status of a street corner gang leader. As he watches his idea(l)s getting eroded by the corrosive system, the director shows through him the fall from grace of an entire generation who lost not just the soul but also almost all to Naxalbari and its askew ideals. 

Mahashweta Devi's short story "Draupadi" shows that the Naxalite Movement not only gobbled up its own children, but it also victimised the status quo by making it brutal beyond belief.  Translated in to limpid English by Gayatri Chakravorty-Spivak who used it to raise the problem of the subaltern voice, the story stands the Mahabharata tale of 'Draupadi Chirharan' on its head. 

Dopdi Mehajen, whose attempt to help her tribal people, gets her brutally violated by the police force chasing her, has no hopes of a mythical help. Instead, she uses her tattered femininity, her traumatised body to taunt the perpetrators. 

Art, in brief, be it film, be it literature, brings in to sharp focus the twisted complexities, the ugly underbellies, the lived realities underlying the ideological slogans. If we want to completely understand this end of what once supposed to be a beginning, better to read more and more of such literary texts, watch many more films detailing such delusions! 

Pratima@ In Aai's memory, we have floated a short story competition. It is annual. The theme in its initial year was "parents". The first prize went to a story by a tribal author from the Nagpur-Gadchiroli belt. His story dealt with the disillusioned return of a tribal youth who had converted to the Naxalite cadre. The story was a moving analysis of how and why the boy decided to return to the mainstream. 

Quote of the day:                                                         Says Salman Rushdie, "Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart."

Word of the day: Naxalbari Movement                Today was declared the formal end of the Naxalbari Movement. It was a 1967 armed peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. It was led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal, and Jangal Santhal. Emerging from a CPI(M) faction, it targeted landlordism and land dispossession, sparking a prolonged, radical movement known as Naxalism. It spread to various states, becoming a significant Left-Wing Extremism, its urban variant, et al, in brief, a circular cause n effect challenge to the status quo, peace, development and progress.