The ITR days!

 The last week of each July is real taxing. In each sense of this term. Yes, the last week of July is the period to file income tax returns, and most all tax payers, forever praying for a possible extension, generally behave in a taxed way during this period.

Well, if you belong to the lucky minority whose office itself looks after every detail and each complexity, your only duty is to sign on the dotted line. Very few Indians belong to the organised sector anyways. As a result, such lucky blokes are real few.

Rest all have to run around for each tax cut, and every tax deduction. Most bank employees, to begin with, pretend to perfection that they are anyways very busy, that the machines are very much efficient in general, but are caught unawares during the last few days. The tense wait for each certificate and every signature is quite literally "breath taking".

At last, the magic mantra  the i/t being e-filed flashes on the mobile screen, and the week, lo and behold, is finally over. Each year you promise yourself, you would never suffer the nail biting finish, but, but, the July last week has a trick up its dotted line!

Pratima@ And thus continueth the tense feel!

Friends!

 On the friendship day, a simple question! Who is a good friend? I suppose, these days, the answer would be 'someone who shares data' as that would be the contemporary version of 'a friend in need is a friend in deed'.

Levity apart, in my opinion, a friend is someone who has your good at heart. Silently but surely, such a person, rare and hence real special indeed, would work wonders to 'make' your life. (S)he would never mar it, for sure.  (S)he would never backbite, but would surely point out your errors, your mistakes, your follies to your face, without making any fuss about it. Such a person would praise you, but would sure help you remain grounded, in brief.

Yet another question, can, and should, parents and/or teachers, authority figures, in short, be friends? I would say, yes and no. Yes for the friendly style/tone, but no for the excessive familiarity. The familiar is often fulsome, and must be avoided in certain close relationships, right?

My feel is also that books indeed are THE best friends. They keep you in constant touch with the best on the earth. So do all the fine arts, music, painting, films, and so on. These are my y friendliest favourites.

Last but indeed not the least, my best friend is MYSELF, knows me the best, inside out, judges me the worst, but always for my own good, helps me truly when i am deep in douldrums, and always gives me the best company, wherever and whenever.  What say?

Pratima@ It is said you can find a 'guru' in everyone and everything you meet. So it is with friends. You can feel/find a friend in most everywhere, be it nature, the flora and fauna(remember your pet, for instance, the most invaluable friend ever), the song of the sky, the whistle of the wind, the rustle of the pages of a book, the tune of a song, the frames of a film, so on and so forth!

Shravan

 The month of shravan begins today. It is on such occasions that Aai's memory lingers continually. She and Papa would always follow all the rituals most lovingly, and never ever as a hard-n-fast, lifeless code.

Shravan has that lovely feel of abundance, of the fullness of promises nature generously makes to mankind. Everything  has a fresh, clean,absolutely cool look, and hence that Shravan feel of a practice rich theory of living in tandem with every being in nature.

Take Nag Pachami, for instance. It celebrates a farmer's friend in an agrarian economy. But for snakes, rodents would finish off sprouts and seeds. That sense of gratefulness is what the festival means.

Aai celebrated each Shravan festival with all the fervour. Neither of them stood on strict observance of traditional praxis, yet they instilled in us the ambient feel that Shravan celebrates. No wonder, all the three of us are most conscientious in every which way.

Yet another beauty of Shravan is its uncertain climate changes. In naughty moodiness, it can beat the most reliable predictions climate wise. When we least expect rains, it showers, and whenever possible, the gentle sunlight plays hide-n-seek with us, making us happy, carefree kids even in big cities, and at advanced stages of our lives.

Let us continually celebrate the mischievous, gentle game of living life gracefully, tender under any duress, graceful beneath every pressure, that is the feel Shravan seems to instill, right? Long live Shravan in every second of our existence.

Pratima@ The  Shravan feel should be our best companion throughout the year..

Aspirations

 Aspirations are aplenty. They drive us ahead.They are indeed inevitable, too, for anybody who is a thinking person. They indeed mark the next stage of self determination.

Aspirations should, however, be realistic if they are to fructify. When they are thus grounded,  they can easily see the light of the day. Otherwise, they tend to be either pipe or daydreams.

The young these days, i always get the feel, are very down to earth in their aspirations. They know, at times a little scarily, what they want, and are at it with a determination that is almost frightening.

Aspirations are supposed to be a class issue, too. Post the LPG in the early 1990's, a large group of the burgeoning middle class was hugely aspirational, for instance. They drove the economy of, nay, the nation itself. This India became the paradise of the consumer economy, a bubble that was to, and did, burst badly during the Covid years.

In brief, aspirations are necessary, but they better be actionable!

Pratima@ aspirations, ahoy/they make thee                       try n better life thy/ let thy                              aspirations be real/thus thou with                     future maketh a deal fair! 

Change

 How things change, and how very fast! Till March, 2020, as a teacher, one was irritated if students used a mobile during a lecture. In fact, many disciplined institutions confiscated the instruments if students used the mobiles during lectures. There used to be barriers in the form of firewalls!

Come the end March 2020 (in Pune, March 21, 2020, to be precise) and the Covid terrorised the whole world, and that, too, without any gun or a bomb! Thus the mobiles transformed in to an essential educational tool. Well, the question was to learn or not to teach! 

Come August, 2022, and the wheels had turned full circle. Offline teaching had begun anew, and the mean mobiles were miserable distractions! The very same teachers and parents who cajoled students to use mobiles now fumed and frothed at the mouth, if the m-word was so much as pronounced!

Well, times change, and how we change according to the times, tough or tender! Some proof that change is the only constant!

Pratima@ "Change is inevitable, growth is                             optional", opines John E.                                       Maxwell. Touche!

In Memoriam

 A quarterly is a very important event for a company. So it is for an individual, but when it refers to the one fourth period of a year after the passing away of your near and dear ones, it is a very sad event. Well, today happens to be one year and a quarterly after Aai passed away on March 26, 2021.

Watched a much acclaimed short film. It talked of an old mother, vivacious despite the advancing years. Her only demand is that her children call her up every day. Caught in their busy schedules, they do not manage it. And then she is no more. The wild regret has no meaning anyways.

Memories blitzkrieg, but such a war has a defeat always pre-scripted, leaving one wounded yet again. One knows the compulsions of daily life, and yet it is this heavy heart that refuses to nicely adjust and agree. Memories, that is all, and forever !

Pratima@ Seconds, minutes, months fast n                          forward fly/ hidden forever in                            the soul is a singeing sigh!

Of our remembrances

Recently it was the birth anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak. Such is the identity politics obsession these days that it was almost absolutely forgotten. Most leaders are now conveniently grouped, and accordingly their anniversaries, birth or death, are celebrated.  

Very sad is this fact because in the process almost a-historically we tend to overlook the great contribution these people made. Lokmanya was for one thing a great patriot. In fact, he is one of the arch initiators of the freedom struggle in India.  He wrote blistering attacks on the British that awakened, enlightened his contemporaries, and terrorised and irritated the ruling British so much so that he was sent to Mandalay.

The time he spent there was equally unbelievable. He used the incarceration for brilliant theoretical analyses of the Bhagwad Geeta, of the Aryan debate, for instance.

Most selflessly, without caring much for his own health, his own self or his family, he gave his all for the nation, and he deserves our deepest gratitude and a humble remembrance devoted to his great contribution to the growth of our nation.

As it is, we are yet to pay a meaningful tribute to the millions of unknown men and women who selflessly sacrificed a lot during the freedom struggle. At least the great leaders such as Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Savarkar need be remembered with reverence.

Oh, yes, it is quite possible that their entire legacy may not be monolithically appreciated. After all, however radical thinkers and visionaries they might be, they were undeniably products of their times, too.

Unfortunately, the current craze for an alternative genealogy, rather than a balanced and honest evaluation, is so rapacious that the great past contributions are politically measured and calculated as per the caste equations which is very sad. Much worse is the misinterpretation of their great legacies, most often without reading the entire works or without consulting the contemporary contexts.

Well, neither our adulation nor our vicious ignorance ( in all the senses of this term) of such 'movers and shakers', to use a facile term popular today can take away their value addition as influencers, to use further the current lingo. On the contrary, such condescending partisanship belittles us, not them!

Pratima@ Whom we like, what we say about                      anyone indicates a lot about us                           than about our object(s)of                                   devotion or derision or                                         denigration. 

Hope

 Heavenly 

 Ordinating lives 

Peacenik 

Ever n always!

That is HOPE, the only straw for the drowning!

Pratima@ Hope is eternal/ meaningful n real/makes living eternal/despite despots infernal

Distractors

 What takes you away from your goals? Your  daily to long term plans? At times, it could be situations beyond your control. You might have planned to go out, for example. You are all ready, and then it gets dark and cloudy. You have just gotten okay-ish after fever,while the cough and cold are lingering still. Prudence takes over, and you remove the chappals and your readiness for the plan.

Sometimes, it is the unnecessarily hurtful crude and rude behaviour and vibes of the so-called near and dear ones. Before you could even explain why you are undertaking a particular action, such people, for no rhyme and reason, block you out of explanation. Should not you accept your non-existence for such people rather than be disturbed by such consciously alienating behaviour even when you are not a burden on them in any way?

That brings you face to face with the real distractor, your mind. You must have enough control over the mind. You must not allow it to get hurt or angry  or to wander because of the conscious misbehaviour of any one, including your own self. 

Let me give an example. When we know what we are supposed to do as per the plan, and yet we listen to our mind and its childish insistence for just one more (any thing it could be, a chocolate to whatever), we are ill treating ourselves, the worst crime, and, yes, the greatest distractor it is.

Yes, Milton has already stated it most tellingly, and once and for all. The mind is in its place, and makes heaven of hell, and vice versa.

Pratima@Control your mind, and the                                 distractors would be in the auto                         control mode.

Language study

 Without fail, i practice my foreign languages daily. It is true a language is a skill, and it literally enters your blood stream. You never forget it actually. Even if you were to try it after quite some while, you may fumble just a little, but the language would come back to you. Yet why run the risk? 

Hence the daily practice. The only exception is my Japanese. I am okay with the spoken part of it. The written part, however, especially the Kanji stroke order is too much an investment of time. Anyways, if necessary, i would be comfortably able to teach the basic most level. So!

Well, with Revolution 4.0 around, languages are going to matter a lot as communication is going to be the key. Is not that rather obvious with so many translators and Alexa's around? Lost to the Covid aftershocks, the 'janta,' is yet to warm up to this stark reality. In the meantime, long live language studies as languages are a long term investment, they say. I think that they are friends forever, once you are acquainted with them up and close.

Pratima@Languages leverage a lot!

The Idea of a(ny) University

 Was in the university for a guest lecture. How wonderful is the very idea of a university, one realises on such occasions. For one thing, the expanse of the university is huge and beautiful. With the current lashing monsoon rains, the greenery was afresh, content, clean, and in the  best of  natural attractiveness. Even the buildings, et al, had a neat, clean look due to the rains, adding to the laissez-faire, laid-back feel of a typical university campus.

This feeling of peaceful contentment was enhanced as i met a few former students who remembered with affection our lectures. Should be genuine praise as now nothing would be gained by such an act, right? Even otherwise, my students know very well that i am rather amused by fulsome praise. So! Anyways, the youthful optimism in the very air was cute, to say the least .

The actual lecture started rather late, was not much to write home about. The post lecture discussion was quite interesting. As usual, quite extreme opinions were floated, the main thrust areas got ignored. For example, the idea of absolute evil, beyond any socio-cultural constructs rooted in any political-economic paradigms, was not even touched upon in a discussion of "criminality from Sophocles to Shakespeare", while Iago in Shakespear's  'Othello' is a great example of such 'motiveless malignancy'.  There was at times the typical academic  'bias', very conveniently and comfortably and righteously 'radical', et al, built in to the debate.

As i had a lecture at 2 p.m., i rushed back to the Main Gate. The usual humdrum reality, the busy traffic, et al, were in full flow. That contrast truly made the idea of a(ny) university so very clear, as a cocoon, a h(e)aven of the wor(l)ds, tangential yet important for the (op)positional sustenance of banality! Long live universities, the self indulgent islands of thought in a world busy with daily 'norm'al living!

Pratima@Thoughts, too, are actions. That is                       the real and great idea of the                              university.

"Never meant to"

 You, too, must have been a victim of such a behaviour pattern some time or the other. The other party involved consciously, knowingly misbehaves in a such a subtle way that you cannot exactly put a finger on it though you know very well that it is conscious misdemeanor.

 If you ignore it, it continues with equal subtle finesse. If you snap at it, the cat-n-mouse game has reached its apogee because the manipulative wrong-doer turns round and says, she (most often, though not always) never ever meant any such thing, and that YOU chose to misunderstand!

Smart assess such people are. These cookies know how to sweetly play the imaginary victim card, too.Tears are so much at their beck-n-call that these born actresses would never ever want glycerine. They know the wonderful art of eliciting the sympathy of the unsuspecting spectators who most often are the credulous crew of the scenario.

Certain relatives and relations are excellent at such manipulative manoeuvoring, the in-laws of the female variety, the oh-so-sweet young types. In any power game, such feline types would faultlessly assume the victim role while actually they are the victimisers, and the guileless onlookers whom they turn in to current alibi are sooner than later going to be their future victims.

How to deal with such skilful "never meant to, you chose to misunderstand" types? I suppose, leave the place/situation/ context immediately, and  preferably forever as the "never intended to" are experts at repeat performances, and the audience sympathies are  obviously won over by them.

Instead of fuming and fretting over such irritating manipulation, avoiding such scenarios and subtly letting the perpetrators know that you are privy to their agency, i suppose, would be the better options. And, oh, yes, let go of any resentment, and cock a mental smirk at the " never intended" types. Life hardly deserves being wasted on such subtle cat-n-mouse games.

Pratima@A (wo)man may simper and smirk,                     and yet be the vamp(ire)!

A winner is a dreamer

 The title of the blog is a Nelson Mandela quote. A kind of tribute to the legendary leader whose memorial day it was just a few days ago. Yes, indeed, a winner IS a dreamer. She dreams with open eyes. That is to say, to make the vision in the dream come true, such a person works real hard, and makes the dream a reality. Fair enough! 

Personally, however, i believe in the reverse of the quote. In my opinion, a dreamer is a winner. I feel very strongly that to achieve anything at all, one needs to dream of it. One sees such a dream with open eyes actually, and hence subtly the dream becomes an obsession. Thus does one get ready to eat, sleep, etc etc as the ad goes, the dream. Given such genuine commitment, the dream becomes a much deserved reality.

If you were to follow the paths of all the great achievers in any and every field, you would agree with me, I suppose.  When dreams thus become our very beings, reality itself becomes a dream, and you do not mind anything, the difficulties, the naysayers, the delays. You are ready to brave it out, sunshine and rain, oh, yes, all, and that feel itself is dreamy. Dreams indeed never die!

Pratima@Dreams are forever/even when                           they make you tread on the edge                        of the razor/feet may hurt, but                            the dream is a pleasure/fulfilled                        sooner than later!

The serious art of fun communication

 Yesterday we talked of the limited language, that is, the little meaningful communication conveyed by the hieroglyphics like emoji's. Unlike the limited communication power of the emoji's, doodles have a dynamism in depicting the idea 

Google does it real well. Day after day, without ever repeating the theme or the occasion, the Google continues to perform the miracle, that is, inform and entertain us, right? 

Another such powerhouse of infotainment, enriched by quirky and fun-filled use of language is the great Amul ads. Simply superb they are, and are everywhere, in the newspapers, on the net, making the roadside billboards less ugly. 

That is the power of good, intelligent, fun communication. I do feel that emoji's would never match that. Good communication always begins with/in a superb idea, and unfortunately, like users, like medium, like message!Long live genuine communication!

Pratima@The 'how' of communication is not                     as centrally important as the                                'what', the content, followed by                           the 'why', the occasion, right?

Meaning?

 😅😅.😂😂!🤣🤣🤣!🤣!🙃!😏?🥱🥱!😠😠?😡?🤐!😡? Does this mean anything to you? With the punctuation marks galore, does not mean much to me either. Well, let me provide some verbal context. The first two were added by a student who at the last minute conveyed her inability to attend the Distance Mode online lecture this afternoon. The two emoji's finally in the message gave the (at) last lie to her otherwise umpteen declarations of her serious commitment to studies, right? 

Similarly, the other emoji's, too, convey something, if at all, only in connection with words and/or contexts. Oh, no, i do NOT have any itch against the emoji's. I am just trying to understand the valency of this pictorial depiction of meaning as it is the world emoji day today. 

Indeed how does an emoji mean? Oh, no, do not worry, i am not about to float a lecture on semiotics. Indeed, though, how does the emoji conventions work? When two experts gave me two meanings of an emoji, i checked online, and realised that on the internet, there exist dictionaries of emoji's! Well, i did not completely want to ruin my "vision". So left it at that. For all you know, there might be high research on this newer version of the ancient hieroglyphics!

As far as i am concerned though, i devotedly love words. Emoji's, hence, are minimal in my usage though that may push me in to the category of the conservative, old generation types! It is the soul that has to be young, not the (ab)use of emoji's. Anyways, no harm wishing emoji's a long life that would wither away as soon as the speaking (gboards) become more fashionable! Alexa, anyone!?!

Pratima@Symbol, symbol online/what                               exactly is your tagline?

Simplicity

 Simple is the real beautiful. Simple is the real truthful. Simple is the truly intelligent. Unfortunately, all of us are sold on the expensive. The "most costly" something is, it appears appealing to us. 

Actually, all that is simple is always more appealing. Simple, whether a way of living or of thinking, is ever uncluttered.  It has an inherent cleanliness. Remember Gandhiji on his clothing when he had to meet the Queen?

Simple are the basics of a good life, too. Such a life is clean and costs minimally. Such an amazing alternative simplicity is. The Bible of Simplicity is Thoreau's Walden.Teaching it even in parts is a pleasure for the students as well. Do read it sometime soon. Long live simplicity.

Pratima@ Simplicity is supreme.

Qualifications!

 The C.A. results are out. Those who cleared both the groups sure deserve all the praise that comes their way. As per the need of the country, per annum, a certain quota of candidates is allowed to clear the exam  apparently. Creditable success indeed!

Does anyone know of the NET exam that such students' teachers pass? The passing percentage is still lower in this national level test. I would not know of commerce subjects. As far as English goes, the passing percentage is roughly 4%. The examination never happens consistently every year either. Of the four per cent candidates who clear the exam at the national level, literally a handful, the top few to be counted on finger tips, get the JRF/SRF. 

Yet nobody ever celebrates this grand success. Unfortunately, wrong people who have the right connections and/or carry money bags manage to land jobs, and, it is darkly hinted, use the same tricks much later to get themselves  the comparatively much easier, SET, qualifications. 

Unfortunately, often students know such inside stories, too. They hardly respect such teachers. Once the threshold is thus lowered, the respect for genuine, sincere teachers gets impure, too. 

In certain professions, such base of respect is indeed necessary. The doctor who looks after the body and the teacher who cares for the mind/soul of a person are two such professions. Unlucky it is, however, that the respect quotient is lowest in these holiest professions. With the advent of the AI, hope Devi Saraswati would guide the pitiful souls, regarding how to ret(r)ain the respect of students when most all 'janta' thinks that the 'guides' provide all solutions, and the Google Guru is the ultimate pandit! Long live the respect for teachers!

Pratima@ i am indeed rather happy that I could make my parents proud by clearing the NET(Lit.) Test twice, with the JRF/SRF. Those days, unlike now, and, in fact, since 2000, the test was not an MCQ, and hence was that much tougher to clear/crack! 

Fiction fiercer than facts or vice versa?

 If and when I can spare just about forty minutes, i watch Crime Patrol as the cases in that serial are based on facts, though they get presented fictionally. Often, in that serial, there is a cross section of versions of the Iago's and Macbeth's one thought one met only in fiction.

Even then, the incident I saw this lazy evening was indeed a shock. Apparently, it took place in Sholapur of all the places. The story had convolutions and distortions that could shame a potboiler masala movie. It showed how a 'man may laugh and laugh, and yet be a villain'. In addition to using all the desperate tricks for subtly furthering his cause, he used viruses and medical technology as his tools, a scary possibility absolutely probable, too.

The only irritating aspect of this 'truth-based fiction', often presented as a suspenseful who-dunn-it, is the police department therein. Except for the rule confirming two per cent exceptions therein, the real life police department is hardly so very committed, efficient and effective. No wonder, Coleridge discussed "willing suspension of disbelief"!

Pratima@ Real more truthful than the reel!                       Or vice versa?

Guru Pournima

 Guru Pournima and the  Teachers' Day are two happy rituals in the life of the otherwise much neglected teacher community. Students, whom one used to teach years ago, make it a point to write to you, to wish you. Nice feeling it always is to know that the sea of forgetfulness has shores where the sand castles of memories remain intact despite the winds and waves of current busy-dom! 

Actually, with the online blitz, teaching is further losing the sheen that was anyways dimming. The online mode alienated the teachers and weakened the bond, especially because of the MCQ exam pattern that convinced most all that they are geniuses!

That is all okay. But who is a guru? Not someone who merely finishes off the portion, right? But someone who gives a vision, right? A GURU guides, understands, re-energises, undulates thus the real "me" in the student, right?

In that sense, our parents are our first and often our most concerned guru's as our lives continue to be their  lifetime careers! Hence, on this auspicious day, let me bow down to 'mam  janm's adya matapitaro"! Sorry, Kalidasa, the poetic world's "adyaguru" for that take off that I just could not resist. Well, our parents often have amply proved to us that guru's are forgiveness incarnate!

Pratima@ A GURU guides, understands,re-energises, and thus undulates the real self of the student, of the disciple. 

Co-operation

 One gets to repeatedly hear the grand narrative regarding how important it is to be co-operative. Yes, indeed, it is important to be co-operative and pliant. Yet, where does sincere co-operation end, and where does tacit giving in begin? Of the two, which is far more important for the good of everyone, and your own self respect?

Let us look at a few concrete examples. Imagine a household wherein the parents are not real well-off, and yet go out of their way to fulfil the teenager son's every demand. The son's friends, all of them, have swanky smart mobikes. The son wants one, too. The parents promise one when he gets twenty-one as they plan to save enough till then. The son thinks they are insensitive, and do not co-operate with his demands that are common enough in contemporary contexts!

Or a son who wants his un-co-operative father to sell off the apartment so that they can move in to 'posh' locality, while the aging father feels that the current market for second hand flats is way too down for any positive outcome? 

Or the demanding wife who insists that she needs an expensive new saree per month as it looks very down-market to repeat clothes as she has to attend different family functions! Is she herself co-operative?

Let us now look at this interesting example. There is this post graduate student who wants academic assistance on a personal basis. The lecturer, very busy and real well versed in academics, has accepted all the terms and conditions of/by the student, timing, payment, adjustments in lecture timings as the student works as well. 

The student is yet to register for the course. So she has not even gotten any study material. Yet, almost half the portion in all the papers is thoroughly completed, literally line by line, word by word.

Now the teacher wants her to discontinue the lectures on a daily basis, and in the spared time, read the seminal texts yet to be taught so that she fully understands them. The plan is to resume teaching after three months so that the student gets enough time for reading while the distance mode learning materials would also be available, the question paper pattern would be clear, too.

 The course examination would be sometime late May/early June next year. The teacher feels that the lectures could resume circa November as by that time the entire  reading would be completed and festival time, too, would be happily spent. The entire portion would thus be ideally completed latest March end.

The student imposes tremendous pressure on the teacher to continue teaching without any break. If the teacher does not give in, she is non-co-operative! Or is she?

It is indeed necessary to stick to certain principles, a way of thinking and being that is pliant without compromising on honour, self respect and values. Hardly matters then what self centred people choose to think of you or call you, right? Why be a puppet dancing to someone else's convenience and vanity? Okay it is to be ill thought of by such people beyond any reasonable or rational paradigms!

Pratima@Never be afraid of subtle blame                          games and image shaming.                                  Follow the right(eous) path. In                             the final analysis, it leads to the                          welfare of the whole world.                                Vacant co-operation is subtle                        .      manipulation!

Wonders

 The internet has indeed opened the floodgates for infotainment. For one thing, the countless youtubers are very much an alternate medium. As they are not exactly tied up with promoting a particular group with a specific agenda or ideology, they often come up with a refreshing content and an oppositional point of view. Often the analysis is quite incisive, too. Wonders they are, in brief.

Yet another interesting contribution originates from the numerous videos. At times, they are quite crazy, too. There was this seven minutes long video on babies farting! Of course, i did not watch it. But the weird idea seemed to tickle an enormous number of international viewers!

Often the cutest videos are from pet parents. Often the owners have a kitty and a doggie. Lovely and quite incredible are the videos of the friendship between these two traditional enemies. There was this one of a small kitten cuddling right next to a huge lab, and snapping at anyone approaching the sleeping giant who soon woke up to a huge yawn, and promptly proceeded to lick up the baby kitty in to shape!  Equally incredible are the man-beast friendship videos.

Any number of listicles, a huge mountain of 'how to' videos, vlogs, travel-logs, cookery videos, and so on, the internet seems to be a mine of info where the content is the king crowned by gems of creators!

Pratima@Wonders never cease when the                            medium, as Marshall MacLuhan                         would put it, makes the message.

Scaliest Scandalmongers

 I was watching this very British tirade against boring Boris! Voila, i realised we have hereabouts many versions of the same phenomenon. Let us look at one such creep.

Let us call him Rahul? Oh, no, it would unnecessarily get political, right? Actually, the very name, like the person under description, is very filmy and dramebaaz. But why get in to ugly mud-slinging? 

Oh, of course, writing about such a person is like fighting with the swine. The pig loves it, and you get dirty. That is okay, nay necessary at times, as such creeps do NOT otherwise understand anything at all, given their skin thicker than that of a poor rhino.

Okay, let us call the cheapie, Deepak. I chose that name for two reasons. To begin with, there is only darkness around such cheap versions. If at all they are good at anything beyond licking every available organ of all those in power, it is only at gossiping, back-biting, spreading nutty and nasty falsehoods. 

They are the best sources especially when it comes to knowing the "most false lie". Yes, as far as anything approaching truth goes, there is only darkness in and around such monsters. 

Want the creepiest falsehood? You do not even have to do anything. You might just be quietly eating your breakfast after a tough language lecture in the Univ mess, and such a creep with a creepier friend, belonging to the minority, moreover, would both sprawl themselves in seats bang opposite you, and vomit such nonsense about the sexual preferences of a professor that you would feel like puking out the very little stuff that you are somehow pushing down the gullet. 

First and foremost, you would not even understand who, what, and most importantly, why, and still more importantly, why in front of me? After your initial shock gets over, you feel like tapping Deepak Dandy  very  kindly on the back with, "beta, go home, take better care there, okay?"

Let me give you another instance of the magnificent creativity of such crooks when it comes to cooking up scandals that never existed. The cutsie-wutsie Deepak, actually Darpok would be a better description and nomenclature, would call an innocent girl, with no relation in the matter whatsoever, the girlfriend or even the widow of somebody just because His Highness felt like it. 

In a very filmy language, he would describe the poor girl "Bhai ki widow". Now, when did they get married in the first place? Were the Bhai and the girl ever seen together at least once over a cup of coffee or a plate of dosa that the Bhai sumptuosusly fed other fatties at Vaishali, for instance? Who gives such crooks the right to tarnish clean lives?  Especially when their own womenfolk are nothing to write home about?

Oh, ya, my mistake, i forget. Bade bap ke bete hote hai na janab! So all activities, except vrooming here and there on (and/or in) the latest mean machine, are extra. Born with a platinum spoon in mouth, they spout wordy and empty Marxism for convenience. 

Given the platinum spoon, and other such apparatus hopefully at the right place, unlike the non-existent brain or heart, there are thus  "connections" (and moneybags) enough to land a plush job, with a golden handshake at the right time  to be 'a free bird', and thus harass others who have nothing at all to do with them! Even at sixty, such specimens believe that their 'mast(i) time' is on! How would it worry them that not everyone has a readymade Papa-wala business to fall back upon!

Now the second reason why call such yuck stuff Deepak, and let me end this narration about nausea in human form.  Old granny types seem to love such vermin. Once i was deep in to teaching something rather difficult online, and this old lady, older than Aai, started squeaking "Deepak,Deepak", out of the blue, rather crazily and, oh, yes, in a worrisome way, given that advanced (st)age.

 What could one do even otherwise, one wonders! May be, pray that God, poor soul though given this horrible duty, might choose to light-en such sockets of darkness!

Pratima@No, I am not bitter, but i do titter                       at cheap scandal mongers.

Targetting Innocence

 When you are down with fever, you need something to divert your attention, right? Anyways, i do watch "crime patrol" even otherwise. The story narrated in this particular episode talked of how an innocent act of sharing your appreciation of the service provided and the data theft thereafter of name/address/mobile can land you in the trap of a mollah chaser.

As it is, with the unavoidable wifi and internet and multi-media mobile, women are targetted more. The incident showed further how. An innocent housewife who gives her review of railway services gets a call from a travel agent whom she readily gives further assignments of ticket booking out of good faith. Under the garb of submitting the tickets, he comes to her house, too. Actually he is infatuated with her, and she does not even realise it as she is very happy with/in her life.

Suddenly one day her mobile is lost, and everyone starts acting weird with her. It so transpires that the ticket agent does not have any means of livelihood, and so decides to fleece her by spreading the ugliest rumours about her.

Luckily, for her, she has a friend who helps her out, and, most importantly, her balanced, sensible husband chooses to stand by her. They approach the police who track down and arrest the crazy villain, and an absolutely innocent woman is saved from any extreme step.

Well, the story happened in Pune, and it is the best example of how in a consumer society, your extreme goodness and innocence get 'unforeseen enemies'. Indeed, at times, such a watch is better than vapid news. Hence this write-up instead of the continuing medical series. 

Pratima @"The trust of the innocent", writes                        Stephen King," is the liar's most                           useful  tool."  Indeed!

Weakness

 Weakness! Is it the mind or the body that is weak? I have always believed that it is the mind. The mind makes you or mars you, has been my faith. If the mind has the s(t)ay, you can climb a huge mountain with just two cups of coffee, too, as i proved to myself at Vaishno Devi.

All that is fine and true. Yet when you are down with fever due to climate change, your body suddenly makes its presence felt. Every muscle and each joint ache so horribly that you are left with no option but to rest.

I had that feel at the first shot of the anti corona vaccine. As it is the great nurse in that wonderful hospital, despite my multiple protests, gave that injection almost in the neck. Well, i did not have high fever, but for fifteen days at least thereafter, i suffered a terrible body ache.

Often it happened to Aai as well. Her body just would not respond at times. Even when she wanted to complete the crossword puzzle in the newspaper, her favourite hobby, her back would ache terribly. Most often, others in the peak of health do not realise it though. 

Yet again how much we are controlled by the paramedical staff, is unimaginable. In the Mangeshkar hospital, Aai had nasal feed. If you did not remind the staff on time, they would cool forget as if the old and the fragile do not deserve constant care! Remembered it because of the nurse who gave me the corona vaccine shot almost in the neck.

In brief, the mind matters the most, but the body, too, has its say on the weak days!

Pratima@It is not merely the mind that                             makes a heaven. It is the body                           ache that is pure hell. Milton is                           sure to forgive this (mis)use of                           his great quote.

The unique doctor substitutes

 Yesterday I wrote about two novels that dealt with doctors, and medicine as a profession. I was to continue the series. Well, as things would turn out, suddenly I am down with fever. Should not be very bad. But that made me consult and depend on our real doctor friends, the chemists. 

Indeed a chemist often saves the day for us. Given their theoretical and practical knowledge, the 'across the counter' medicine they suggest is often a panacea.

Pritam Rathod of M/S Rathod Medicos has always been a godsend during Aai's days of weak old age. Yesterday he came without a  murmur to help out. Long live such doctor substitutes!

Pratima@ the unique doctor sunstitutes!                            Real helpful.

Doctors@ Art

 The profession of doctors is indeed fantastic. Sure the idealists in this profession are not very many. Would not that be the fate of most professions though? In fact, the fig leaves in every vocation would be the truly minimalistic minority of some two per cent who are genuinely committed, and consider the profession an extension of their very selves as it is their avocation.

May be, because patients' lives are directly involved in this noble profession, the corruption of all sorts in this profession is an eyesore. Literature, especially pop literature, captures quite well what ails the medical profession so badly that it is necessary to say "doctor, heal thyself".

One of the best examples of  medical imagery is in Keats' poetry. Keats, who had won a scholarship to study medicine, would have made a wonderful doctor as well as a greater poet had he lived longer. He never got the chance though as he died of consumption at a very early age. His poems, and letters, have  precise depiction of the symptoms a patient suffers though!

I do not mind stating it openly that I adore the medical fiction, even though academics may dismiss it as pop stuff. In fact, i am a half (baked) doctor as much due to Aai's illness as due to my quite obvious obsession with the novels by Robin Cook. Yes, i am quite a fan of Robin Cook's ouevre. 

As a sincere student of  serious literature, I do understand the melodrama, the repetitive plot patterns, the quite simplistic black-n-white characterisation therein. Yet the ethical issues, involved in medicine, as often it is a marriage of convenience with technology, are fascinatingly presented in Robin Cook's fiction.Moreover, the medical world in his novels is unmistakably a spitting (in all senses of the term) image of the reality. 

Yet another novel that I adore, as it deals with the medical world, is "The Citadel" by A.J. Cronin, yet again a practising doctor. Cronin, too, knew from close quarters the dis-ease in the medical fraternity, the moral dilemmas, the ethical choices involved in running/ruining the profession and the "re-search" possibilities therein .

Well, i can write papers on either or both the authors. The blog readers may want me to take 'the' chill pill though. So i better stop now. Some more some other time, and, yes, much more on the depiction of the profession in films, too, soon.

Pratima@ Reflection of medicine in fiction                         is of realities a great translation!

Parents:Two Haikus

 Parents: Two Haikus

1)Purest love coursing in the thinnest vein,         Rent they their souls unto their children.         The deed unto that unstated transaction         On to every genome, each chromosome            Etches a forever transcription!

 2) Gen next                                                                leaves the nest                                                        in search of pastures green                                  the lingering shadows of the pleasant pain       nibble at parents' souls                                         like a pup chasing its tail                                     round and round in zoomies                               Intoxication gentle and serene!

  Pratima@ Nobody in this entire universe                            can love us as deeply, and                                    forever, as our parents.

Plastic Problem

 Plastic is a problem product. Most of us are addicted to it though. The plastic bags, for example, are sleek and smart, unlike the very useful, environment friendly cloth bags. Cloth bags are the best, but they lack the elegance and chutzpah of the trendy plastic bags. Well, superficial attraction is alluring for most ordinary human beings, right?

Actually, plastic is truly a danger. From stray cow's stomach to the coral reefs, plastic products, bottles, sheets,zip bags, and so on, have been destroying the very flora, fauna, climate and human health.

Plastic pollution is a wicked and naughty genie indeed that is now refusing to get bottled back. Actually, there could be positive alternative uses of waste plastic. It can be used for paving roads, it can also function as environment friendly building blocks, it can also help while structuring artificial man-made lakes.

A sudden roll back of plastic is indeed impossible. We as a society would suffer terrible withdrawal symptoms. That obsessed we are with plastic use. Yet it can be phased out systematically, while using the plastic waste products for intelligent recycling. Such measures are urgently needed as otherwise plastic may choke the very earth, our very existence 

Pratima@Plastic products suck/The very                             ambience is thus muck! Simply                         Yuck!With plastic, why have                                any truck?

Laughter always wins!

 Well, for so many days, Maharashtra has been "experiencing earthquakes in the political field", say the media. How about a little chuckle at politics because, I believe, laughter always wins.

1) A teacher asks his 'English class'. Which tense is, "One day there will not be any terrorism in the whole world"? One bright spark says, "imaginary future", while the other pipes up, "future impossible". Well, kids are innocent!😀

2)  A leader's son fails miserably in the exam. He starts distributing sweets. A surprised journalist asks him why. Says the leader, "Sixty students in his class failed. He has solid majority with him".🙈

A few risque ones now, in all the senses of the term.

1) You do not have to be crazy to be a politician, but it sure helps. 

Desirable qualification that gets you the job in this field? Well,the next one may prove this assertion!

2) The Secretary: Mr. President, your wife is expecting.                                                President Bush:Shit! The Al Quaida must be behind this.

The quote by Henry Cate is the last, but not the least, you would agree. Says Henry Cate, and many others of his ilk,"The problem with political jokes is that they get elected." 🤣🤫😃🙉😃🤫🤣

Pratima@Laughter is indeed the best                                 medicine.🤣🤣🤣

Desire

 Desire burns in every heart

 Eats up the human soul

  Soft, gentle thence thus cauterised

  Inside thus raised to a Hiroshima 

   Ruined thus in to a vicious void

    Eternal burst there atmic bombs!

    Pratima@ Desire is a worrisome warrior 

                       Who defeats it hath no fear!

   

Lies

 How easily people lie, right? In a way, from their personal perspective, it is ok and natural, too. What I find rather interesting is the fact that no occasion is holy enough for them not to lie!

Such are the times right now that only the nuisance value of a person matters, never the positivities. A third rate, banal person, with the  least good qualities but with huge nuisance value is catered to these days. And, believe me, politicians are the least culprits in this area! 

Personal relationships to academics, no field is safe from the attack of this virus. In fact, it is the acutest in these areas. So called relatives to colleagues would treat a genuine person like a hot potato, while they would lick the dirtiest feet of the vilest person because that wonderful soul (if that contraption at all exists in either the boot licker or boot lickee) has a huge nuisance value.

Given such realities and the extreme self-centred contexts currently, it is but natural and normal that most all people lie through the teeth, and every other possible organ with whatever crevices! The best way, i suppose, is to subtly let them know that you know the truth, but choose to laugh off the(ir) lie because you know which way the bread is buttered for such creepos.

Personally I am of the opinion that it is better to keep quiet than to prevaricate knowingly, but each to his/her own modus operandi. One day not very far away, for such people, realities are going to mock at their own reflections (in both senses of the term) viciously, which is no lie at all!

Pratima@ Why so much so obviously lie?                            Give instead decency a try!