Money matters

 Look at the title of the blog today. The second word, "matters", used in this title is both a noun and a verb. It means both: monetary issues and it also means money matters, that is, money is important. 

I thought of this title because of the DHFL issue. Some 77,000 individuals have invested literally crores in that company. The Wadhwans got their  company in to trouble, and now those thousands of common Indian citizens are in hot water because  only 23% of their basic principal or investment is getting returned, that, too, without any interest. 

Undoubtedly, there must be big sharks amongst the investors who might even be privy to hanky-panky. But mostly it is the small time investors who used their meagre life time savings in the DHFL share trading. As it was an extremely safe proposition, given the Gurgoan boom, they were not exactly wrong in their monetary/financial decisions either. Once the Wadhwans turned themselves in and the company finances got mired in insolvency issues, what with later mergers by big shots such as the Piramal's, nobody cares for the small time investors. 

Lost in the mire of financial technicalities, the issue has now bounced in to the Supreme  Court. It is not clear if any PIL can be filed so that the supreme court can take cognizance through a suo motu action.

May be, the Media must look in to this truly valid issue as daily livelihoods of many senior citizens would be involved. What with the reduction in the banking fd interests, such private players matter. Actually, the realty boom the world over has bust ever since the 2008 American tragic crisis. Even in India, we had the DSK issue, for instance. But the very amount involved in the exact transactions in the present  instance is truly mind boggling. Hope everybody involved takes proactive measures, and within a given  time framework. Well, every industry cannot meet the Tata's!Lucky Air India at last!

I teach "My financial career" by Stephen Leacock to my f.y. b.com students. My basic contention about the sardonic, sarcastic  essay is that it opens up the heartless, indifferent treatment meted out to the hapless common man by the big business and finance conglomerate. So sad that the DHFL insolvency issue proves me right!!!

Pratima@ money may make the mare go, but it drives small time lives in the direction of the cremation ground, and fast! 

GANDHI

  Gandhi, great Man, simple at heart

  And, non-violence was his only art

  Nothing but truth was his only fort(e)

  Dandi where soured power, 'n 'got lost'

   Hearts of followers lovingly made heaven,

   India hence got an inimitable freedom.

Pratima@ life as an eternal experiment of self exploration/was Gandhiji's genuinely radical vision

Contentment

 Been There, That done

 forms just the plinth 

Contentment builds on.

It houses joy

 that  peace plans 

that freedom breathes

that happiness cements

that throws in to dustbin

envy that peels off

jealousy that stinks 

arrogance that boils

pride that rots

Contentment is a home 

Where the divine resides!

Pratima@Aai-Papa taught us contentment as they longed for it, lived it, loved it!

The Worst Villain Ever

 Who is the worst villain ever?  Chengiz Khan to 'Saddam'(as he was minimised by the Yankees), and beyond, there would be very many candidates for that wretched position. I am not much interested in that torrid viciousness, especially because each one has his coterie  of bhakts and haters that is not ready to listen to the other(s). It is sheer egoistic din without much thought. Personally, I find the haters rather interesting . In my opinion, they are so busy painting the imagined adversary as the most evil one that they are literally obsessed with him/her, even more than the bhakts. They almost seem to need simplifying, dehumanizing, demonising, diminishing, 'other'ing him/her as if for their own existence!

Well, why worry about such weirdo's, available aplenty? Let us instead look at one of the worst one available in English Literature. The worst villain, that notorious department, is totally eclipsed by Iago.

In fact, he owns villaindom. Nobody can compete with his " motiveless malignancy". Just for sheer fun born out of wickedness, he creates such a web of lies, rumours, suspicions and hatreds that an absolutely innocent girl is viciously victimised. Of course, he is ably supported by the cupidity of Roderigo and his one-sided obsession with poor Desdemona, the hurt ego of Brabantio, her father and the inferiority complexes of the absolutely stupid Othello, and, oh, yes, her own innocent lie born out of the desire to save the lost destiny!

In my opinion, though, Iago's villainy emerges out of his lust for power. He needs power over others as in the case of Roderigo, her reject, over Cassio who supersedes him and whom he presents as her paramour, and, of course, over Othello, his ultimate target.  When he has tested power through his manipulation of Roderigo and Brabantio, he is like a man-eating tiger cum hyena lusting for the poor/pure Desdemona and the stupid Othello. He is someone Machiavelli can take lessons from, given his spidery web of deceits, lies, calumnies. In the process, he captures Othello's soul, like the devil.

Who, and what, defeats him finally? Sure it is his wife's blistering attack on the foolish Moor's brainlessness.  But more than anything else, it is Desdemona's gentle goodness. When Othello hits her in public, in front of her powerful relations who have always been wary of her decision, she covers up his behaviour. Why, even when she dies at his hands, her attempt is to save her love. Well, that pristine purity of purpose is the ultimate antidote to power lust/greed, I believe, not only in the personal space(s), but in the public sphere, too!

Pratima@villainy can victimize, but cannot corrupt integrity and innocence.

Art is Heart

 This afternoon was quite a wonder. Let me explain why. It proved to me the veracity of my deep faith in the power of art. 

Well, on one of the wapp groups, there was this anecdote about a lady collector who goes to a girls' school. After her speech, during the Q-n-A session, a student asks her why she never wears makeup. The lady hence tells the story of her childhood, ridden with poverty and the worst difficulties of all sorts. Soon she has to work in mica mines for minimal wages to earn bare minimum necessities. Children are preferred in mica mines as they can enter the hole like openings to ferret out more produce. As ill luck would have it, one monsoon, the roof of the mines caves in, burying her entire family underneath. Despite so many misfortunes, she manages to educate herself to become a collector. As most all items of makeup use mica, she possibly cannot use it, is how the story ends. 

My Eng Lit soul, reared on "Jane Eyre" and "Oliver Twist", went its usual senti way, and I reminded myself of how people suffer impossible atrocities in this weird world, and how one is luck incarnate in comparison, et al.

By 4 p.m.-ish, however, it was found out that there was no such collector, and that she was a product of a Malyalee author's imagination. Did I feel cheated? Absolutely no way! In fact, it proved to me yet again how art is heart. The superb power of the wor(l)ds an author creates! Fiction truer than reality! I remembered Aristotle on probable/possible! Yes, indeed, art gives you heart and soul, and tempers your head. Long live (he)art!

Pratima@our saddest thoughts give  birth to our sweetest songs! Of course, I owe the deepest apologies to Shelley, my one time, and even now, though in a different way, hero!

A Day Divine

 January 26 is indeed important for us Indians. If August 15 celebrates our Independence, January 26 solemnizes our sovereignty.

In my opinion, our sovereignty is of utmost importance in the current context. No, I am not talking merely of our borders and the Chinese attempts to tamper with our frontiers. Abler minds of strategists and stronger bodies of the soldiers are fit to take  care of that tangible threat. 

Here  I am referring to other subtler menaces that are not immediately visible, yet are real  palpable dangers. Given the high consumerism in the post globalised world, the MNC/TNC conglomerates are the genuine most hazard to the national sovereignty. The pandemic can itself be an example if conspiracy theories are to be believed. There is a strong likelihood as per the conspiracy theories that the trans- national pharmaceutical companies created the monster virus scare that spiralled out of control of most nations, whatever tier they may belong to, advanced to underdeveloped.

In the same fashion, AI controlled warfare, given the digital revolution, can assume Frankenstein proportions. The very invisibility and yet dominant presence of such enemies that can create unique warfare that include chemical weapons harming bodies and thought infections ruining minds is a lurking demon difficult to be bottled.

Identity politics carried on at schizophrenic decibles is yet another threat to the federal and sovereign status of a multi-cultural entity like our country. Such 'media'-ted pogroms by all sorts of 'interest' groups imprison minds and vision in a truly threatening way, given the underlying 'we' better than 'them' binary scripting such narratives of ALL shades and sizes.

Which are the solutions? Thinking minds that can gauge, question, critique the chinks in the armours of ALL the subjugating strategies. The best solution has to be the right to education to create such an ambience. More debates about the NPE, about Liberal education, about credit banks that can energies the multi-disciplinarity, allowing foreign universities without compromising on equity, multiple are the ways to create an efficient educational ecosystem to use the current  buzzword. As we enter the seventy fifth year of our Independence, we are to thus become internally strong and resilient.

Pratima@sovereignty of, by, for people

Tourism ahoy!

 Tourism is respected the world over. In the western part of the world, it has always been important so much so that it was once upon a time, almost till the mid nineteenth century, an integral, though informal, part of upper class education. Even in India, it has been not been any different. In fact, once upon a time, to get "vidya" meant leaving home, getting used to a way of life very different from one's own household, which trained the disciple in the modes of lived life, and  not merely  only in modules of theory.

Times have changed totally now, and thus the very way of the world. Education is no longer wisdom. Given the onslaught of information via the infotech way, it is often not  even knowledge. Rather, it is more an "up-skilling" in an industry-'wise' way! 

Actually, be it the spice trade or even earlier still, the silk route, India has always been a great tourist  destination. Such an attraction is but inevitable, given the  inherent vast variety that our continent size country celebrates. We are 'multi-' in many a ways. The Tourism Day on January 25 pays tribute to that varied wonder called India.

In India, there are so many geographical, historical, natural, religious, spiritual, artistic, artisan sites that a lifetime would not be enough to cover them all. We must not forget the burgeoning health tourism. Why, until the absolutely necessary stringent laws were put in place, many a parts of the Indian hinterland were h(e)avens of surrogacy tourism! 

Given the rise of the aspirational middle class, post 1991, added to this unending list are the foreign destinations, often popularized by the Bollywood. Now a days, highly personalized, individuated tours that could include stay-in's are acceptable, why, in fact, popular! Very soon space tourism might no longer be a 'special appearence' scenario. Already adventure tours, whether up the summits or beneath the seas, are the "been there, did it" blasé feel, no longer the right of the rich.

 Such is the 'wanderlust' of Indians that the Covid pandemic and the reverse migrant rush during the summer of 2020 with its heart rending visuals of the 'long march' could not dull it. Every week end, the sites near cities need blockades now in the wake of omicron!

If the tourism and hospitality related  service sector is to grow ethically, protection of nature and  sustenance of environment must be the goals. Only then can we now reiterate that "touring wide makes a (wo)man healthy and wise".

pratima@ in memory of the childhood excursions!

A Day Dedicated

 Yes, January 24 is indeed a day dedicated. In both the senses of the term. In that, it is a dedicated, committed day. It is, moreover, a day dedicated to the girl child. And does she need it! Indeed! Absolutely! For sure!

Though,this year, in 2021-2, the sex ratio is rather impressive, in a patriarchal society like ours, even today, a girl child is not exactly welcome even in so called educated families. Sure, the number of families with just one daughter is on the rise, at least in metro or quasi metro cities.

The uniqueness of India, however, is that we are simultaneously living in multiple centuries. There are parts of India that can compete to advantage with New York or any other global metro, while there are the adivasi 'pada's', for instance, that face the 'Jungle Raj' in every sense of the term. Why go so far away? Even in Pune, the so called cultural centre of Maharashtra and the much touted Oxford of the East, there are pockets that belong to absolutely contrasting, mutually exclusive societal structures.

In such a socio-cultural context, a girl child needs support, familial, societal, educational, cultural, financial, and what have you. No wonder, the need for such a day never diminishes, nary dwindles. 

It would, one day, when the star of women would be in the ascendent. That day is not too far away, moreover. Slowly but surely, the rays of women's achievements are en-light-en-ing the darkest corners of the Indian society. In brief, Indian women shall overcome, and that day is not very far away either. For the time being, the need to celebrate the girl child day till rings in that midnight hour when all the citizens of India will rise together, while gender differentiations will die dormant. Forever.

Pratima@a girl is a blessing/that is forever refreshing!

If

 If? You may wonder what kind of title it could be. Well, there are at least two poems entitled "If", one by Rudyard Kipling and the other by Emily Dickinson. Actually, as is her wont, Dickinson never gives her poems any defined titles. The first line of her poems is taken to be the title.The present poem is no exception to her general praxis. In a way, by curtailing her line length title to a word, I am even more cautious and austere with choice of diction that Dame Dickinson! 

In a way, the two poets are distant, well, almost, contemporaries. Yet vast is the difference in their poetic vision as in their lives. Kipling, every which way a colonial product, is very public. Dickinson, on the other hand, a recluse who lived the" Violet by a mossy stone/half hidden from the eye" kind of existence, is extremely private. There is a kind of intimacy and interiority to her verses that celebrate the fragile, the minutiae of life. Saving a fainting robin or cooling one pain or easing one life the aching can make her content!

If Dickinson's wor(l)ds craft the miniature canvas, Kipling's brush strokes are very large, very striking, and in the public realm. Walking with kings, talking with the commoner, fighting and forgiving the high and the mighty are his concerns. Undoubtedly, both the poems are deeply touching. If, however, Kipling's inspirational poem is quite hectoring in its tone, Dickinson's is as gentle and soft like the March morning breeze or the soft sunrise on a misty December dawn.

Does the difference in the two poems in their message and the style emerge because  of the poets' gender positioning? That is to say, Kipling's verses deliberate in the typical 'man'ly way about very male concerns, while Dickinson's is the feminine delicate touch. Read both the poems and let me know your impressions, please. Hope we could thus come up with newer interpretations, too, of these two poems, and of poetry itself.

Pratima@if I have made a line clearer/ to the discerning reader/the feat makes my day better

Korona smile!

 The virus and its variants are getting on our nerves, right? Let us laugh them away. Here are a few Corona jokes 

1) Laughing away tears!

Listen to these grandparents. "Our grandson has taken 'keeping safe distance' very seriously. Now he does not even call us!"

2) Yet another guffaw at loneliness.

The neighbour auntie was chatting away to glory with her cat. I came home, told my dog about it, and we both shared a hearty laugh over it 

3)The saviour

My parents eternally scolded me that a stay-at-home lazybones is no use. See, now people like me are saving the entire world.

4) Understand why gluttony is a sin?

The buttons of my coat manage these days to keep social distance. They acquired this soft skill during the lockdown. Good learners they are! Well, they do not have to study online! 

5) Cure deadlier than the disease!

After the compulsory quarantine period, the doctor told him," to go to the vegetable vendor, it is enough to wear a mask and gloves." The fully dressed buyers and the vegetable vendor in her "navwari" saree raged beetroot red when he reached the veggie market.

Pratima@ Aai-Papa, too, believed that laughter is the best cure!

Ganesha

 God supreme, the Lord of Wisdom

 Astounding in creativity He seems

 Never needed false glory, the beatific God

 Ever the brilliant thinker, all arts he trod

 Shiva's Son, Mother's pet, Intellect incarnate

 He, the Master mentor , the icon of Talent

 Aspire I to his Benediction, God, the great!

Pratima @ Celebrating the unique glory of Ganesha

Absence

 What is this notion called absence? Mere reverse image of presence? How is it that those who are near and dear to us, they are very much there, though actually nowhere there? Death does not dare part us from them. They are very much there, around us, fleeting in our memories, lulling us with the lullabies of their absent presence!

So it is with our friends, our acquaintances. We may not see them for days, months, years, and yet when we meet them, the bounds of time and space are unshackled as if they never existed. Absence wilts before the eternal presence.

So many of our experiences are such, absent yet present. Who has ever seen imagination, intelligence, creativity? Goodness, honesty, genuineness, authenticity, transparence, integrity? Physically not present, as they are conceptual, but absolute psychological realities they are, right?

And the scientific principles, are they physically present? Electricity, gravitational pull, are they ever seen? Are they physically present? But their physical absence hardly matters, right? They are there, and therefore we jolly well are here! Paradox personified!

Last but not the least, god. Eternally absent, yet present every nano second. Well, even if you are a die hard materialist and atheist, you have to accept to that this complex mechanism called universe has to begin, has to be initiated, however much set later in to a particular rhythm of its own. In brief, in absence resides presence, and vice versa!

Pratima @ absence makes presence real!  

Responsibility

 The whole of today, almost the whole,  I had to spend in intimating and convincing students to submit assignments due circa November 20 latest. The post Diwali seemed to extend in to post Sankranti.

What I found quite interesting in this whole procedure were two facts; viz, as usual all the teachers shared the plight, and students seemed least concerned.

True, our education system sucks. Yet should not students, too, proceed at least three steps in the right/"write" direction when teachers are literally in their drawing rooms due to online teaching? Why is there such total lack of responsibility? These very youngsters would be excessively aggressive when it comes to their rights. That is undoubtedly good, too. 

But with rights come responsibilities, too, right? Unfortunately, currently  most all seem to forget this fact. However, unless and until we are sincere about our responsibilities, too, an obsession with our rights alone makes us  shallow, self-centered, stupid, self-obsessed, hardly the characteristics of a good soul and/or decent, mature individuals/societies!

Lucky indeed we are that Aai-Papa  forced us to realise the importance of our responsibilities. Hence this tribute to their sense of loving responsibility to us, and ours!

Pratima@assuming responsibility is granting oneself and others the assurance that you are the solution, and never the problem.

In Memoriam

 What is the best way to forever remember your near and dear ones? Undoubtedly, it is to follow all the best they taught us, improve ourselves as per the principles they set to guide us. Absolutely agreed, but if anyone were to ask for some concrete indicators, what could these be?

Could it be the traditional rituals? Well, they cannot be completely ruled out. We have, however, attempted to traverse that extra mile. When Papa expired, we planted trees in his memory. We donate money to a poverty stricken  Brahmin on the Ashatami Shradh each year. Every June  21, there is a sizable donation to some NGO. In the very first year, we instituted a prize in a school he visited and with a University he loved. We gave two institutes for the destitute he worked with a sizable donation. Unfortunately , only one institute continues to give us some annual feedback about who got the first prize, et al. Hardly matters!

In Aai's memory, too, we are already in the process of giving donation to  an Arts college and to her School. For the mahalaya shdhrada, too, we tried to donate money to a poor Brahmin.

The best memorial for her, however, is the annual literary competition under the aegis of Menaka magazine. Participate in it, spread the good word about it.

In a way, it is Aai-Papa who instilled this gratitude in us. We instituted prizes in her parents' memory in a famous school and a College in Pune. She was very happy when her cousin's daughter got the prize instituted in her mother's memory. 

Indeed it is a great feel when it is declared that the R.M.Agnihotri Prize for Developmental Economics to student ABC would be given at the august hands of  a great economist every year.

Gives one the feel that somewhere somehow we have gratefully repaid in a very small way the immense love with which our lives were shaped.

Pratima@ no duty is more urgent than giving thanks, but how to go about it if involved are  your parents?

N.B.:For more information about the Menaka competition, info is available on the Menaka prakashan site. 

You have to write a story of about 1500 words in Marathi, the theme is "Parents", it is due on Feb 4, the first prize is Rs. 1000 and the first three stories will be published in Menaka successively.

The Pune address of Menaka is easily Available on the net

Translating...

 Translation is indeed a difficult activity. It can never be word by word. It is more like carrying the feel, the emotion, the idea, the thought behind and beyond words from the source to the target language. On this arduous but hugely satisfying journey, there are many, in fact, countless difficulties such as the "cultural noise" as communication studies chooses to call it. Let us look at a few  such actual issues, though many more are involved, as they might be attention deficient right now.

Shall we look at a few examples? How to capture " the face that rocked thousand ships" in a non-European language?  There is in-built in that expression an obvious reference to Helen, a mother who left a young son and a loving husband to run after a lover. Actually, however, she was a pawn in the ego trip of goddesses fighting over the "Golden apple". So many allusions thus peal in every expression and word. A good translator has to do justice to such allusive subtleties.

Let us look at another expression. " Ata ladu kadhi" does not refer to the activity of going to a sweetmeats shop. Obviously literally translating it in to English would sound forced and artificial.

Yet another problem posers are the "falsche Freunde" that sound and spell similar, but mean vastly differently. Given such challenges and communication "noises"  involved in the process, translation is tough. Oh, yes, we have not even referred to the body language involved in interpretation, the process of meaning-making orally! Remember how Frenchies speak? Such issues would matter a lot while "interpreting" orally, right? 

Technological/scientific translation could be the google game, but literary translation is not even the machine translator or "algo rhythm" though robotic poems are now available, too.  Complex issues tougher than Corona, indeed. But who cares for quality translation?!? That is the (real) question!

Pratima @ words create worlds! We respect them while translating.

Covid infected 'e-ducation'

 Do you find the title of the blog today rather confusing? Well, my submission is that the patient who has truly suffered a lot during the Covid era is education. It is indeed on oxygen.

Why do I say so? Well, initially, I felt that Covid could be a semester long, may be, and students who lacked connectivity in any form could be helped through good content generation that can be shared via variegated technology that is easily accessible, may be, the traditional radio and television, already established as proven means for educational dissemination.

Well, in my naive optimism, I did not realise that the exam system, the bane forever of the educational scenario, is going to assume the online avatar. It did, and dwindled, moreover, in the the currently ubiquitous mcq's.

This form of testing, whether in the formative or summative version, has reduced studies in to object-ifiable  items.  It is, moreover, mostly mere information that is easy to remember. All the higher order skills seem scarce here. Forget imagination, innovative thinking, even simple deduction is missing. If earlier examinations stressed rote learning, now rote learning is coupled with simplification of questions and deletion as the method of arriving  at answers. 

Practically every student seems to be getting at least ninety on hundred. It makes all happy. Well, it is not health, it is bloating which would finally ruin the body. Hope faster than Corona vanishes this disease!

Pratima@future depends on what you do today, said Gandhiji

Being a woman!

 There was this talk in the morning. Rather interesting, too. The learned speaker related certain cricketing moments and personalities to management mantras. Fun n learning package it was. It was followed by a "q and a" session, too. All good so far.

Now let me talk of the question I very much wanted to ask , but did not because it was a student oriented activity. Well, my question addresses the issue of how women's cricket has  changed the paradigm the world over, but especially in India, and yet it got an absolute shrift in an interesting discussion. It was present due to its total absence! 

Yet another point I wanted to make was women's management is often better, opener, more transparent, inclusive, humane. Of course, there would be exceptions galore. Well, we do know the universally valid rules-exception-rhetoric rather well, don't we?

Is not it interesting that in 2022 when women have repeatedly proved themselves brilliantly, they are still absent! No Wonder, glass ceiling is not a myth!

Pratima@ I love being a woman/tho' thousand troubles hence have been my turn!

Sankrant Special

 As the Sankrant dawned, so did Aai's memories. Aai-Papa, both of them, loved celebrating each festival. I suppose, it gave them both a sense of rootedness they were denied by their elders in the very first six months of their marriage. The festivals were, of course, for us, too. Each festival hence was celebrated with lot of fervour.

Aai used to begin preparing 'halwa' some six to seven days in advance. Making halwa is a very difficult art. With bare fingers, she used to coat each sesame seed with Sugar jelly, atop a hot 'kadai' perched up the gas stove. Yet all her halwa's used to be of the same size and consistency. She would colour them with kesar/saffron, etc. Papa used to post the halwa in special potli envelopes to all family, friends, acquaintances. Sending and receiving halwa was an important facet of the festival. For almost a week later, we would continue getting such envelopes from relatives, friends, et al.

On the "bhogi" day, sesame paste ritual bath was compulsory. It made the skin super soft. Without fail, she would make the  millet khichda, millet bhakri coated with sesame seeds and the bhogi special mix vegetable. With home made butter, home made perfect ghee, her special amti, the special bhogi food used to be superb, what with the sesame chutney. She could make anything taste simply superb. 

On the Sankrant day, she would make both, lovely tilgul and gulpoli, once again sweetmeats extremely difficult to prepare. Before the Rath Saptami day, there used to the "haldi kunku". Her attempt ever was to give the invitees some useful but beautiful   "wan", the ritual gift.

She never asked Papa for a special Sankrant saree, but she made lovely "halwya che dagine", jewellery she delicately handcrafted with the extremely fragile halwa, minute and easily breakable. Both her daughters in law, each one of her three grandsons got this precious gift. She made such jewellery for other relatives as well. Back breaking labour born  of sheer love it was crafting these jewels, truly precious.

Even on the rath saptami day, once again, she used to make 'tilgul ladoos', the jaggery-sesame sweet as the prasad after boiling rice and milk the ritual way in the " akshay patra".

What eternal fount of creativity, energy, love for family would revive such traditional ritual year after year, she and Papa alone would know. Till 2021, I cheered her up by following most rituals her way, of course, with minor concessions such as ready made gulpoli's, for instance. Her brothers would visit us on Sankrant day, too, making her feel very happy. This year, with neither she nor he being around, the sweet tilgul tastes bitter!

Pratima @ love's labour is never lost/it lingers forever/like the shadows/ forevermore accompanying you/ never leaving you lonesome.

The poetic prowess

 Jan 12 is actually the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda as well. Hence this small little attempt to understand him a little more.

Most all people know him as a monk, dedicated to ancient Hinduism. That opinion, rather a misconception, as he was actually a very modern, contemporary, progressive, liberal, democratic thinker, would require a proper book to demolish it. 

Let me hence present here a side of Vivekananda very few think about. In my opinion, he was an interesting poet. Undoubtedly, he is a great communicator. Remember the very emotive, and hence highly appealing, beginning of the famous Chicago speech? Believe me, that speech about religion, is quite poetic, too. Swamiji uses so many poetic devices, alliteration to allusion, that is, sound to semantics, that reading it is enriching yourself as a reader/author. His rhetoric is anecdotal, too, which gives it a very personalised effect.

Last year, when the G3 paper was not absolutely "career oriented", I taught Swamiji's poem entitled " Peace" that made brilliant use of all the poetic aspects, but especially of a figure of speech called paradox.  It was fun explicating it and students enjoyed it, too. Well, I was to write a chapter on Swamiji's poetics as a means of his vision. The project did not come through due to many a reasons. Here is hoping I would soon get a chance to thus explicate and celebrate Swamiji!

Pratima @be a reader to be a poet!

That glory called parents

 Today it happens to be the birth anniversary of the great mother of the greatest king from Maharashtra, Shivaji Maharaja. A paean to a mother, to parents is but natural and normal today.

A mother, a good parent, is someone who looks after the total welfare of the child, the emotional, intellectual and the spiritual well-being of the child. She looks after the head, heart, soul of the child. My submission is that Shivaji Maharaj's mother was in this sense not only his mother, but the mother figure of the entire nascent Maratha kingdom. She punished stringently anybody in that kingdom who ill-treated an innocent woman, for instance. As a result, hence, she gave a conscience to the entire emergent kingdom, a true duty of a mother, making it absolutely different from the other principalties then.

A mother, a good parent, never indulges, in brief, a child just to humour it, just to attract its attention away so that she can continue with whatever she wants to do. Often, for example, busy mothers would give a child lot of clothes, eats, toys, and stuff that makes the child lulled away from their "actual" being with the child. A highly pampered child hence is the product who is later on going to find it very difficult to carry on when life is not equally indulgent.

Yet another trend is that parents of parents are left to take care of the child, almost as if it is their bounden duty, while the actual pair of parents is busy with their lifestyle, returning to their parenthood only to scold their own parents if their own child is not brought up their own way. Sad realities of contemporary life!

I must thank my stars that my parents ever granted us the utmost quality time, the best part of themselves so that now however roughly  life may choose to treat us , we are never thrown off the track ever. Thank you, Aai-Papa, for being the wonderful parents that you always were.

Pratima@parents are treasures that never diminish.

Blessings

 Blessings can Never ever be bought

 Lean They, like a Nest, from the heart.

 Each Wish a song , skywards flying

 Soon the universe in goodness embracing.

 Soft as silk, priceless as precious pearls

 Instant they make the blessed an earl!

 Nothing can then your world perturb

 Goodness genuine all evil truly can curb

 Safe forever, none dare then thee disturb!

Pratima@blessings better your future!

The Happy Feel

 Today is the Birth Anniversary of Basu Chatterjee, one of the most loved film makers of Aai-Papa's generation. Actually, Basuda is a hot favourite for/of everybody. His films cross the boundaries that time unconsciously builds. For Aai-Papa's generation, however, he gave a voice to 'their' angst, 'their' problems. The beauty of his oeuvre was that he dealt with the middle class angst with such a feather light touch that the vultures of worries flew away, and joy and happiness chirped away to glory.

Basuda's was a clean comedy. Mostly situational and farcical, it had its own collection of quirky characters. Interesting, basically, however, were the easily identifiable issues for Aai-Papa's generation that his films captured with an authentic allure, and how!

Two of his fun characters Aai appreciated a lot were the mother in  "Chitchor" and the grandma (Leela Chitnis of all the people) in "Baton Baton me". They are minor characters, but so much life is infused in their depiction that they become noteworthy, a sure signature of a master narrator.

What i find, however, really fascinating is the fact that a spectator could those days like  both a north Indian, slightly bossy but extremely family oriented housewife/mother and a mumbaiya slightly eccentric Christian grandma with equal fervour. In our identity politics infested times, such 'class' is indeed impossible! Your own, the character's, the film maker's  "location" would matter much much much more than the sheer participatory joy that Basuda distilled and his straightforward and genuine audience loved! 

Pratima@ truth as beauty/simple and naughty/nothing "hot" or haughty/in Basuda's lovable comedy!

Pravasi Diwas

 Today is the NRI Day, though sans the usual fanfare. Actually, with our friend Corona around what with newer variants in its armory, the very concept of nation has become complicated, given the compulsory home or otherwise isolation, visa restrictions, and so on. Once a person leaves the Indian shores, difficult it is to guess when you would get to see her/him again.

The NRI is a complex identity even  otherwise. During the British regime, there were "brown sahib's". The newer version thereof is the NRI. Most of them are more Americanised/Europeanised than the Americans/Europeans themselves. The fun is in the U.S./Europe, they are more Indian than all of us put together. Most often, they stay, operate, are comfortable in the Indian ghetto's, can never merge with the locals, even in the second generation. They remember, unlike us, every possible ritual in all the minutest details. It is an attempt to carve an, and/or hold on to some sort of, identity, I suppose

This tendency is more remarkable in the post liberalisation days, I would say. Earlier, the cream of India used to go abroad, the best minds. Unlike the brain drain, now it is the money power. Extremely  ordinary students who could  not really do well even in India started going abroad because parents could afford it. Once there somehow, they kept on hanging on despite the pink slips. In a way, they do contribute to the Indian economy through their investments, especially in the otherwise gloomy real estate industry. Most often, they buy flats here to be rented on rather plush charges. 

How they are surviving there, especially during the corona, is anybody's guess. There has to be lot of concrete data regarding it, right? They need to be helped, I suppose, as all the issues regarding profession, must be prominent there, too. On this Pravasi Day, this is hoping they all are safe and sound.

Pratima@pravasi or niwasi, an indian is an indian, needs the motherland as the support, I suppose.

Song of songs!

 It is Bimalda's death anniversary today. Aai-Papa loved his films. Inevitable it was because his films capture that innocent, idealistic, socially aware feel of the two decades or so after the Independence. They reflect the contemporary audience then totally in its clean naivete. 

Let me give you an example of the straightforwardness of Aai-Papa, echoed in those films.  Having stayed in a university hostel during  the research years, and thus having  learnt the ugly realities of life from real close quarters, I used to adore coming to Pune coz awaiting me from the very railway station onwards would be three kids and their equally straightforward, clean, innocent grandparents. 

Bimalda's films captured the essence of that clean, innocent life. Likable as the films themselves were, the music of his films was realistic (remember "Ab ke baras bhej bhaiya ko babul"?) yet soulful (remember any song from " Bandini" or "Sujata"!).

One of my personal favourites is " mera gora ang"  as well as "o re mazi". Now, however, let us talk of " sun mere bhandhu re" from "Sujata". In my opinion, it is one of the best love songs ever, intensely passionate, yet never ever crossing the boundaries set by its own genuineness! A song that captures the devoted feel of true love, it uses beautiful and natural images to capture it. The folk mode of the musical effect, a maanzi song sung by S.D.Burman, is wondrous. The background effect of the soft movements of water  enrich the song in multiple ways. Poetic, lyrical, musical rendition wise and intense emotion wise, it is indeed the song of songs!

Pratima@if music be the food of love, play on, said Shakespeare!

To take or not to take?

 To take or not to take, that actually cannot be the question. It is, however, if the social media is to be believed. Luckily, I do not even use tinder, twitter, and the types. Yet on the wapp, there would be repeats of what a friend's friend  on some such  issues would argue on some other platform. Suddenly party x would be conducting vaccination camps. Nor merely this!

Every newspaper, even when it would otherwise blast the ancient field of knowledge, would  carry  stories of how according to the local Ayurved expert,  vaccination jabs are absolutely unnecessary. What should we to do? Play Safe. Antibodies are sure to save us in any form, right? Why take a chance? Caution never killed anyone, right?

Pratima@to take or not to take is not the question. Let us save ourselves and others!

Nostalgia negated!

 "Be negative, but stay positive" was one of the fun wapp messages sent to me. The negative therein refers to the stage of the Corona affliction,  and  the positive to the possible attitude. 

Currently, however, both appear difficult. What with the newer variants by the day of the coronised world, even a simple cold is worry some, especially because the newer virus versions/editions are both, easily caught, violently virulent.

Newspapers are yet again full of the numerical data regarding the virus spread, the "jumbo's" everywhere are up again, messages regarding stages of the dreaded disease, how to "treat" them have started doing the rounds. Back to March 21, 2020 and/or April/May, 2021!?!

No nostalgia for me though. Given the huge difference! Constantly to be taken care of, to be attended to, Aai was there. When I first explained to her the total lock down, why Raju would not be able to come every weekend, why Sanju's visit would not be possible till the conditions are better,she had told me of the plague in her childhood, how they had in her childhood travelled from Pandharpur to Gursale, and how her paternal/maternal relatives would meet them at the station, but never invite them home, given the fear of infection. She also told me of the constant mini epidemics in Pandharpur due to the "wari" influx, how the municipal authorities would initiate the usual cleansing up, the stench post-Wari, and  all such details.

Now SHE is not there. 

As it is there cannot be any nostalgia for a dis-eased period. For me, though, neither nostalgia nor positivity is possible, given the tectonic shift. 

Though she would not suffer all the horror consequences of the epidemic, and I am happy that all the pandemic negativities would never now ever hurt her, how my heart wishes, SHE WERE THERE !

Pratima@ memories immemorial!

Selfless

How does one  behave with people who think that your goodness and your love and concern for them reduce you to a stupid fool? Wonder of wonders is that these very people would be licking the feet of extremely inferior others who ill-treat them, look down upon them, mock them! 

Are such people naive? Surely not! May be, they know, for whatever may be their  reasons, which side their bread is buttered. No harm in it! In a way, that attitude of theirs is an indication that they know perfectly well how to take care of themselves. Good for them!

But when they consistently behave badly with you, demean you through their very body language and/or intonation, through the looks they direct at you and thus show you repeatedly, reveal openly that you are absolutely a nobody  for them, how should you behave with them  just because you continue to care for them?

Sure one would not be able to harm them or expose them. Not even in one's wildest dreams! But at the same time one learns to take care of oneself, too. Being kind, good, gentle or honest, caring for others does not mean that they should be allowed to reduce you to a non-entity.

Being selfless because you care for a  person deeply does not mean you give that person a carte blanche to ride roughshod on your genuine feels, your deep emotions. If a person never even bothers to call you, never invites you home or to any occasion which is not in the public glare, behaves with you worse than a stranger when you have to be at their place, does not give you the new mobile number, does not answer your wapp messages, never wishes you, throws away your costly gifts, never stands by you nor helps you even during days that are difficult for you, blames you for sins/mistakes you never committed, never appreciates anything about you, on the contrary, (un)consciously allows others to hurt/harm/bother you, while this very person is hyper considerate with others, I suppose, one should take the cue the person is giving you so openly, so loudly, so clearly. Just because you cannot stop caring for that person does not mean that you always make excuses for that person, that you forever worry about the possible personal/professional problems to justify the (c)rude behaviour, and allow that person to constantly belittle you.And, oh, yes, you are absolutely not so bad either that you would be forever wrong, especially because you are constantly worrying yourself to death over every minor issue to avoid any misunderstanding, eternally looking at everything first from their perspective!

In brief, selfless goodness does not mean being self-less.Decency does not mean being a dud. The only way one continues to care for such people is to pray , pray, pray for them selflessly.  When so genuine are your wishes for them, the whole universe is going to back your efforts for their well-being.

Pratima@ never ever any compromise with self respect!

Prayer

 Pray, pray, pray in a world that preys

 Rare may happiness appear in your dismay

 Act thro' the prayer, do not dilly-dally delay

 Years of a blessed life would not then decay

 Eastern sky like would life bloom, ne'er gray

 Ripeness would be all, and peace thy way!

Pratima@ Remember Coleridge's Ancient         Mariner and how/why he prayed to find redemption

 

Resolutions

 Come January 1, and most all are headlong rushing in  to that much inhabited region, resolution making. Sure, resolutions/resolves may change from person to person, and yet there is a pattern to them. Could we say that this pattern reflects the current context? Inevitably it does. Currently, for instance, every body's top most resolution would be to stay away from the dreaded omicron.

As a society, too, I suppose, we need to  make certain resolutions. Not spitting publically, not to mention its worse version that makes every road and each lane in to a public urinal, could be our social, why, indeed national, resolution, right? Corona's and omicron's  may come and go, the Indians their tiresome 'public' habits will never overthrow, right?

That brings me to the seminal issue. Why is it that resolves/resolutions vanish in to thin air within a week? That is because our minds and our souls are not involved, I suppose. Resolves are made more as a mood enhancer, born of the moment and the feel. Emotions when they thus overtake our head, heart and soul, are flimsy and transient, right? A grave, tragic, and serious parallel to 'new year resolutions' would be the emotionally charged promises we make to the dead soul in the first flush of grief. As the sorrow drains, vain appear those resolves. Remember Hamlet grieving over his father? Yet he eternally dithers. Remember his hyperbolic "ten thousand brothers..." declaration? The best examples ever of graveyard grief induced resolves are these!

Never can such resolves re-solve anything. Come January 7 tops, and life is back to the usual, meaningless rut. Resolution making, hence, gets reduced to an empty ritual that may be gnawing at the roots of our very being. Let us give up that ritual! Remember instead Vivekananda's message to the youth and/or that famous quote, "dreams are those that never allow us to sleep", made popular by our erstwhile President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam? I suppose when such are our stern resolves, the entire  universe conjures  up ways to help us! Long live resolves!

Pratima@a resolution fulfilled/makes us better indeed! 

The month of months

 Today ends Margshirsha. It was Aai's favourite most month. She had studied the Bhagwad Geeta formally. She knew hence how Lord Shri Krishna describes it as  "masanam margashirsha". She knew how the month is considered the most auspicious.

Every year in this month, she followed a particular  "vrat" most religiously. It could be reading the Geeta, the Vedas, the Ramayana, for example. Even during the holy Chaturmas, she followed such a ritual. This vrat, though mostly  religious, however, used to be more knowledge oriented, too. Thus she completed reading a great many texts.  

This Margshirsha,  in  her memory, every day, I read the entire Geeta. I have read the holy text daily during the twelve day mourning period, and thence on all the mensual anniversary days, as I did for Papa in 1999-2000.  

Both of them were believers, but in a humane way. Rituals mattered  less for them. Knowledge, however, was focally important. Hence this tribute. Both, as it was but inevitable, given their honest and sincere lives,  must be indeed most peaceful and content wherever they would be now. Hence this minor posthumous tribute!

Pratima@ simple were Aai-Papa's genuine lives/their honest ways made us wise!

Anew!

 Again Begins a New Year!

 Nascent yet! Eager to explore?

 Enough excuses! Why fear?

  Write in it stories unique n clear!

   pratima@resolutions simple but sure /         intentions pure n clear/thus get created Tales/Wherein the Best prevails!