Success

 Success is the sweetest. It crowns our genuine hard work with recognition. It is hence a great feel.

What goes in to the making of success? For sure, it is talent supported by sheer hard work, not merely the smarts. More than that, it is also resilience, the capacity not to be swayed by minor to major setbacks. In my opinion, this capacity indeed is the greatest aspect of success. On the road to perfection, the real base of success, there would be very many difficulties, problems, downright failures, the horrid hurdles the world creates in your way. 

The ability to overcome these as early as possible, to bounce back, matters hugely. For sure, such worries would welter you like a sharp and harsh whip. The pain would be indescribable. How long to wallow but in the depths of despair? Self pity never ever helps. 

It is important  indeed to remember that very many, countless people have a destiny much worse, much much more difficult than ours, and yet they manage to achieve so much. Why then the despondency when so much is in our favour?

Yet another step to success is the support of, the cushioning by all that is the best in this world. Some people may choose to call it God. However may you name it, God, positivity of/in the universe, always remember that it would stand by you, come what may, as it is the universal sheer knowledge that supports your pure intentions and sheer hard work. Such is its strength and power that the so-called luck factor, too, soon follows suit.

The unheard by you, the unknown to you, but genuine prayers of, the deep best wishes by those who continue to care for you, come what may, matter hugely in my opinion. May be, whatever is the best in this universe continues to listen to these heart felt good wishes, and responds to them with a reverberating echo, i suppose. Such heartfelt, soulful prayers for us indeed are the plinth of our success, what say?

In that eternal journey to perfection that is the real fulcrum of success, let each achievement be a step to pause and reflect on what we have achieved so far, and whatever needs to be upgraded so that we continue to remain relevant in a scenario changing by the second. Thus can contented success be our companion forever!

Pratima@ Success is a journey forever, enriching us always and ever!

Translation

 Translation is the toughest art. Well, these days,  self-declared publishers are minting translations of  books by the dozens, and literally by the day. For one thing, these are all the "how to" books. How to become rich, how to save money, how to know literature without reading any original texts types! Actually the how to types, too, need to be translated sensitively. Who cares though? Monies matter to amateurs!

Well, the very word 'translation' means to 'carry across'. While translating, one is ferrying across not merely words, but a way of thinking, a mode of being and becoming, a style of thinking, a totally different world of sensitivities and sensibilities. 

Obviously, the most needed quality in a translator is not merely the total control over the source and taget languages, but actually over two cultures, right? Simplification is never the solution.

Let me give you a famous example. In the Bible, there is this rather well-known quote, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". Right now i am not going to go  in to the actual context of this quote, though actually that detail, too, matters a lot while translating sensitively.

Well, apparently, this quote got translated as "there is a lot of vodka, but there is little meat" in to Russian. Obviously to understand the joke, we need to know the word play on 'spirit' as well as the Russian predilection for drinking vodka, not to forget the food scarcity there, right?

Well, unfortunately, most poor translations go word by word. May be, the reader of "how-to" translations is least concerned with anything except a summarised simplification. In the process die wor(l)ds. Who cares though?

Pratima@ Words become worlds, if used with precision and sensitivity that no robotics can truly capture, and hence the need for transparent translation. 

What say?

 Yet again the nation is down with the cricket fever. Cricket-itis a dangerous disease. This virus is worse than the dreaded corona. It is dreadfully contagious. Once in the thrall of this virus, you are forever this dis-ease borne. The cricket bug badly catches an entire nation for hours and days together. The worst problem with this national malady is that no panacea is its medicine!

In a cricket crazy country like ours, cricket is religion, it seems. And, well, this religion is for sure above the Constitution! Is not that rather funny, quite loony? Well, what exactly does a cricketer do for the larger whole? Forget the often rude and crude behaviour of these bratty worthies, but we cannot overlook the fact that most all matches are fixed.

So it is hardly "entertainment, entertainment, entertainment" either. It is a criminalised mover and shaker energised by the m-tonic! And we waste hours in a futile way, chasing fixed matches. The bookies must be laughing their way to a fat bank balance. What else!

Circa mid-eighties, when the LPG started making inroads across the world, finally arriving at our doorstep in the natty nineties, the game of cricket had already started losing the delicate beauty of the feather touch strokes artistry of a Gundappa Vishwanath. Now it is a 'hit hard' free for all! Real power play every which way!

Such a commercialised game, moreover, becomes more and more personality driven/ oriented. A team game is reduced to individual glory often. In other words, not only is the game now a consumer good, it is, moreover, rabid in its exclusivities.

Cry, indeed, the beloved country, when a foaming at the mouth cricketeer, and/or a brash actor become the teenage idols as if the saas-bahu saga, eternally done to death, or the mushy  melodrama of multiple "reality shows"  is not enough as distractions.

With the fourth industrial revolution at the doorstep, the Ukraine factor,  the Chinese dilemma complicating  the narratives, should not the civil, as well as the  general, society, wake up,  and address such and other grave issues dismantling realities the world over!?! That would be the much needed the test best stroke! What say?

Pratima@ Tough contexts require thought through solutions, and surely not the morphine of the masses such as films and cricket.

Want to train real well?

 Hello, You are interested in learning Spanish, German and French as per the CERF levels or you want to prepare professionally for the TOEFL or the IELTS or for the linguistic aspect of the CAT or the GRE or you want to train real well for the NET/SET  (English). You might want to prepare real efficiently for the English language section of the MPSC. Or you want to know how to go about writing an essay for the UPSC. For these life defining tests, you want an expert, dedicated trainer, right? You can send an email to me at pratimagnihotri@gmail.com

Crackers

 An inevitable part of the Diwali festival is the crackers debate. To burst or not to burst crackers, that is the question. Year after year, the debate rages, louder than the crackers themselves.

The sound and the air pollution levels are indeed the worst during Diwali. That way, the sound pollution is quite bad during the Ganapati festival, too. In fact, some three months before the actual Ganapati festival, begins the dhol-tasha practice,band as in the actual procession, there are countless practices and numberless performers. Hence the complaint.

The same holds true with the crackers, too.  When it comes to the Laxmi Poojan evening, crackers burst louder than any political debate, and are equally polluting and dangerous. 

Should crackers be banned then? Well, for children, Diwali is indeed incomplete without the crackers. It is also pointed out that all the so-called developed countries also use crackers to celebrate all the special occasions. Many argue that stub burning and industrial chimneys and effluents pollute much much more. Why then take away a simple joy from children by making them an oath, et al? 

Well, the debate gets dangerous the moment the traditional practice et al get quoted, right? May be, the solution could be a via media? May be, there could be a "cracker evening" like the "Diwali pahat", wherein the city enthusiasts come together to enjoy bursting the crackers for an hour or two? It can be organised keeping all sorts of safety measures in mind. Otherwise, such debates would continue to get noisier and more polluting than either the crackers or the dhol-tasha groups!

Pratima@Why always the "sound and fury signifying nothing"? Why not "be wise" and try solutions in a trice?

The ceremony of celebration

 Diwali is finally over. It is an empty feel. Suddenly the fully lit houses are darkening. The newly tied and lit up sky lights and diyas are dimmed down.

The dark feel somehow eats in to the soul. The fun is that the feel never changes. Year after year the same feel envelops the soul, the same pit in the stomach, and yet life gets back to normalcy in no time. 

In other words, routine sets in quickly. May be, that is why change continues to be constant, despite the variations factored in by the not so common.

In other words, routine defines and determines the unusual. If the unusual were to be the usual, the routine, it would lose its uniqueness and charm. In brief, long live the routine determined by the lack thereof!

Pratima@ The usual and the unusual/are both at the same time crazy and the cool!

Politically correct?

 I am on a wapp group that considers itself extremely proper and correct and progressive, etc etc. Eternally though there are comments that reek of a strong bias for or against people, groups, political parties, etc etc. 

I find the whole of it quite amusing because most of it is mere forwarded material, copy-pasted, and rather prejudiced at that. Yesterday there was this worthy comment that during Diwali, crackers burst only when men bathe, while nobody cares about how and when and if the lady of the house bathes at all. There was also a homily about how such behaviour is patriarchal. Very pricey comment indeed!

To begin with, these days most all people do not even wake up for the early morning Diwali baths. It is considered oh-so- traditional and old-fashioned. So there is no question of any cracker bursting at the time of anybody bathing. 

Unless they have to attend some Diwali "pahat", jazzily dressed up in funky traditional wear, nobody even wakes up before 7.30 or 8 a.m , as it is vacation/relaxation time, resting before going out for Diwali lunch at some hotel. By that time, by eight-ish,  the morning slot for crackers is long past over. Simple reality-check! Such fact findings are indeed necessary before shooting the mouth/pen, i believe.

May be, some sixty seventy years, this kind of inequality might be taking place. In hindsight, it is easy to lambast it. The entire social set-up was different then. Does not mean it was just, but surely it cannot be measured and attacked by the standards today. That is spurious scholarship and false consciousness as feminism. 

Well, paradigms and perceptions completely and totally  change, due to material conditions to begin with, but the rules and regulations of the social set-up today cannot be imposed on the past, or the other way round. I suppose this mode of paradigmatic change applies everywhere. Look at the late Queen of England, her daughter-in-law, and her grand-daughters-in-law.

 Even in such an institution completely controlled by rules and regulations, by traditions and customs, there is a drastic change, at the root level, at the very grassroots.  But using those changes to lambast the Queen's behaviour as old fuddy duddy would be unfair. In fact, i would say that gently but surely, she created a superb space for herself in a very men's kind of world, though she may not have uttered/known the "f" of feminism.

Well, saying that crackers burst only for men's ritual bath, and not for women's is being very cute-sy and politically  correct. Would it be intellectually lazy and factually dishonest? Why dare in that holier than thou pretence-dom/dumb!

Pratima@Opinionated debates for the heck of it hide vicious hatreds? I would not (like to) know! How about you?

Diwali

 Diwali 2022 accords some bonus for us.

 Indi(a)genious Rishi overcomes every Truss!

 Waiting in the wings is good fortune for us.

  All will be well, never ever lose the trust.

 Long appears the road full of  turns mean.

In the end you win thru' all twisted spin!

Pratima@Never forget Diwali ever celebrates light/that at the end of tunnel awaits, a fact, believe, bright!

Narak Chaturdashi

 Narak Chaturdashi!What all lovely memories of this unique day! Aai would manage to wake up at about four a.m. even when she would have stayed up late the night before, making the unique Diwali special chakali or kadboli. 

Papa would be awake, too. The ceremonial Diwali bath would begin with his. In the meanwhile, Aai would wake us up. Actually, the cold morning would invite one to curl back in to the warm bedspread. But Aai's soft silky fingers massaging the tepid medicinal oil into our backs and our arms would make us forget the sleepy shivery feel.

Properly thus rubbed right with the special oil, the warm water, the Mysore Sandal Soap, the fragrant utane,  would make divine  the festive bath that might have  begun with a murmur of a grumble.  The dimmish  Diwali Diya light in the bathroom used to sparkle bright with the soft lovely feel in Aai's eyes, not to forget the "Aarti Diya" in her hand, and the sparkler in the sibling's.

All along, our small little home would be resonating with the superb raagdari tunes of the great Shehanai by Bismillah Khan. At five sharp, without fail, Aai used to play the long play record with the zeal and ardour of the Neighbour Uncle in the Moti Soap ad.

 Punctuating those brilliant yet soft notes would be Papa's shlokas. Having completed our festive baths, Aai would manage hers, too, by quarter to six tops, as in our childhood, the whole world believed that the Narak Chaturdashi bath of the whole family must finish before six. 

In to the lovely fragrances of the flowers and the special attar and agarbatti for the special pooja would float in the superb aroma of Aai's home made  hyper tasty Diwali special dishes. Those days, these special eats, one could taste only during the Diwali, and hence the special association added further to the flavour. By eight a.m., all these festival chores over, Aai would begin the preparations for the special feast. What lovely efficiency indeed!

No, this write up is not mere nostalgia for those unique days. My attempt is also to evoke the rich feel that fed in to all the senses, touch, sight, taste, smell, and sound. Later when i would analyse imagery and the Keatsian synaesthesia, those lovely mornings would wordlessly float in to my mind, like the beautiful colours of the rangoli that could comfortably compete with the rich colour schemes of the morning sky. What an enriching ambience indeed!

Pratima@ To enjoy childhood was bliss/but to exalt thus the arrival of Diwali was indeed heaven! 

Dhantrayodashi

 Dhantrayodashi, the second day of Diwali, proves Shakespeare wrong. Want to know how and why? Well, remember that positively excessively quoted assertion of Juliet? 'What is there in a name', et al?

Well, unlike the lovelorn Juliet, we have to assert that Dhantrayodashi is not 'Dhan'trayodashi, if  you know the traditional significance of the term. It is NOT devoted to wealth. Health, on the contrary, is its logo.

Yes, it is a day  dedicated to Dhanwantari, the arch doctor/physician of gods. It is on this day that the Amrit Kalash, the ultimate elixir every which way, was offered to mankind as a drop, it seems. 

On this day, all the doctors offer pooja to Lord Dhanwantari. Indeed health is wealth. Only if our physical and emotional health is at its peak, we are in the pink of life itself, right?

There is a unique ritual strictly observed only on this day. One Diya is kept facing southwards. Well, according to Hindu belief system and mythology, south is the direction of death. So neither is a Diya ever south facing nor should one sleep with feet pointing southwards.  

The exception allowed on  the day of Dhanteras is a token tribute to this 'dead'ly power. Well, the legend goes that once the Yamaduta's, the minions of Lord Yama, the Lord of Death, were so moved by the laments and wails caused by the untimely death of a young prince at the marriage altar that they talked to Yama about their reluctance regarding such a cruel duty. Hence Yama put forth this suggestion that a household that follows this tradition of keeping a Diya facing the south on Dhantrayodashi will never ever suffer any untimely loss of life.

Well, how can we interpret this legend in a modern, contemporaneously relevant way? May be, given the polar power of our ambience, the genuine, non-metaphorical 'ecosystem', sleeping with feet south-wards may be affecting the diastolic/systolic pattern of the human heart pumping the blood in-n-out. May be, the polar pull, the magnetism has an impact on the viscosity of the blood. So, may be, south is declared to be the direction of death. To remind the common man of this scientific fact, may be, at least once a year, this ritual is introduced? I would not know as i have not read enough in this area. All this explanation is sheer guess work on my part.

Being a student of literature has great advantages, one of them being you are ever bursting with unique interpretations. Hope my explication of Dhantrayodashi is quite some panacea, what say?

Pratima@How to understand traditions and rituals the modern way, that is the question.

In the beginning

 In the beginning of the Diwali festival is the Wasubaras. A very interesting ritual in a way! Traditionally, it is celebrated as a prayer to the cow and the calf.

Actually, a cow is always preyed on, both by the beasts of prey while she is grazing, and by that two legged beast known as a human being, some animal! Human beings exploit the cow and the calf in multiple ways from their birth to old age. It is hence some poetic justice that the cow and the calf are felicitated at least for one day in the year.

In our colony, enthusiasts celebrate it in a big way. I attend the pooja in my own way (I offer food to the cow and some money to the cowherd) without fail every year because it gives me the truly rare chance to observe a cow from very close quarters. 

How luminous and yet softly  patient and gentle n kind are the eyes of a cow and her calf! There is a limpid liquidity to her gaze. She is hyper sensitive, too. I  talk to her, touch her and the calf without fail every year.The unfamiliar touch gives them both the shivers, just like human beings, but she seems to prick her ears at the soft sound.

Then I remember the Birbal story of how he located the real cow, even when the statue looked like her every inch. How through such folk tales and such people's festivals, our lovingly nurtured childhood thus prepares  a bond between man and his much neglected universe around! We thus learn to align ourselves to the flora and fauna around us. May be, that is why we can say that Hinduism is more a way of life. 

In the beginning of every Diwali is Wasubaras, and that makes the festival of lights, hopefully it would not be rain-drenched and water-logged this year, more humane and compassionate. Long live Diwali!

Pratima@ Says Tuka, the flora and the fauna are our friends and relations, our kith and kin!

Will screech n scratch, but...

 Well, these days, one has to just peek in to a video, and the algorithm decides that this kind of content is what you like, and there will be literally a plethora of programmes related to the theme or personality.

That is the way i got to see this programme which i had not seen on the big screen. It was a full scale roast of the man of the family. Three generations of women in his family, talking over/across each other in a way much worse than the channel debates, were literally proving to the whole world how he is third rate every which way, personally and professionally. 

It was not in fun, moreover. The gang was dead serious. Well, the lady and her female brood were responding to comments he made in response to some fun game with some other celebrity couple. The comments he apparently made were not even with reference to his wife, but in response to the script that must have been handed to him. All of it this must have been rehearsed as fun quotient.

The woman, coming as she does from the same profession, must have known that all of it is the format of a show, scripted much in advance. Yet she chose, or at least pretended, to take it personally, and publically  literally mauled her husband, in cahoots with the next two generations.

What exactly was achieved? What was the goal? Possible that this tamasha, too, was scripted. Then, of course, it is THE pits. Whatever people do for publicity and money! 

But if it was not scripted, it would be a vicious drama of proving oneself to be holier than thou, and begging  for pity from others by washing dirty linen of one's own family in public, right?  A classic case of  'I screech and scratch you out of existence, but don't ya dare touch me'! The only result was the entire clan appeared in extremely poor light.

I suppose, that is the same case with the Diana story, too? Well, her husband to be was dating her elder sister whom he dumped because big sis leaked to the press about the dalliance.  So the lady knew everything about the kind of man/family she was  marrying in to, right?

 The so-called crowd in the marriage was also an open secret before her marriage. Why she, the entire world apparently, knew about  it. She should have rejected the proposal. But how else would you get the perks! 

Even while wedded to the man, she had some six or seven affairs with other men so much so that scandalously her second son is supposed to be one of her lover's child. But she continued to scream and scratch! What kind of fun is it to make a divorce pact with your sister-in-law? Harass and humiliate the in-laws? Apparently, she did not honour that either.

She would croon endlessly about her great love for her children. Apparently, this very woman threw herself down a flight of steps while four or five months pregnant because of some minor peeve with the husband! 

The same scenario with the posed, in all senses of the term, photo shoots! Each time and every occasion, she would tip a whole battery of journalists through multiple modes about her activities, and then cry hoarse that paparazzi harass her! 

Just because with lot of make up,  cute hair do's, fine clothes and great jewellery one looks beautiful, does it mean one becomes holier than thou, a superb thinker, and a great activist? 

What would such women do if they did not have all the benefits and perks that cushion them so well? Unfortunately, the bedazzled, or is it bamboozled,  society vacantly finds them to be great liberators and role models. Real activists and genuine role models do not wear, and DO not need costliest clothes and wow purses, and  photo ops, et al.  It is real grime, dust and dirt that they court for the cause they believe in, and sacrifice a lot for it in countless ways.

The only muck the 'i shall screech and scratch', actually 'I shall eat the cake and keep it, too' brigade manages is in a self-centred way, devalue everything, family, social work, ethics of personal and professional relationships, and thus in the final analysis, society. Sad truths!

Pratima@ I suppose, the world would be a much better place if everyone remembered that when we point a finger at someone, full four fingers point at us!

Road Rage

 Traffic troubles are terrible these days as the narrow roads, mostly suitable for the city of the mid-twentieth century, often resemble the surface of the moon, what with the potholes. With the crushed stones and loose bitumen, now solidified, strewn everywhere, the roads are slippery, too. Our worst foe currently, the whiplashing rain, adds to the woes, given the gargantuan number of vehicles.

Traffic troubles are terrorising, too, what with the road rage tantrums. Per day, the papers are full of annoying anecdotes of road rage. These range from a fisticuffs fight with fellow users of the road to hitting the police officers on duty with beer bottles!

Everybody is on the edge these days, what with prolific problems at every stage, and in each department of life. The smallest affront hence is enough to spark an argument which may graduate to empty threats, finally resulting in a free for all.

Recently in the ladies special bogie of a Mumbai local, two women, extremely chic clad, fought for a seat as if they were fighting each other at the municipal tap. The other women were trying to tear them apart, but to no avail, as the viral video shows! 

What could be the solution to road rage? Leave early, i suppose. It is safer to reach the destination well in advance. One can always carry a book to read, once one reaches the destined premises, a much better promise of the peace of mind, instead of the rough and tumble of getting in to an ugly road rage incident. 

That is at the personal level. In my opinion, however, the real solution has to be efficient public transport system, be it bus, metro, local trains, what have you. Let us hope in this context that the Pune metro gets functional soon. 

Well, cities are growing real fast today.  Super spreading urbanisation, worse than the dreaded corona virus, is the reality of most all traffic systems everywhere in the  world, but especially in India. Hence  better parking plazas, not available in the city center, should be immediately made accessible.  Co-ordinated signals at crossroads could be a solution, too. More traffic police, busy beyond the 'collector' duty, are the need of the hour, too.

As a city bloats in to a metro, following traffic rules strictly must be the road users' priority, too. Lane cutting to honking to speeding to not wearing the helmet, road users believe that roads are tracks for stunts!

Well, if urban roads are not to be the Tom and Jerry cartoon strips with both yowling at each other like cats on a hot tin roof, all, when on roads, must behave themselves, whether men and/or machines.

Pratima@ As it is, madly races the traffic. Why then the additional road rage!

Moonlighting

 The Covid period was indeed a leveller. We all remember the extremely tragic exodus of the poor 'blue collar workers', so to say. Many lost their jobs, and had to return home. Equally tough was the situation of the cyber workforce.  Despite being highly educated, and graduating from colleges that charged astronomical fees,  they, too, had to share the fate of losing jobs, and returning to hometown. 

Slowly the online mode settled as an alternative. In a way, it was the 'work from anywhere' module. Many I/T employees hence started working from two tier and/or three tier cities. There was an unavoidable pay cut most often.

May be, moonlighting was a response to this precarious situation. Now  in the post Covid period, if it is indeed so, given the constant threat of a newer and highly contagious variant doing the rumour mill rounds, this practice is a cybercrime!

Many giants in the I/T world are asking ( in fact, sacking) such workers to leave. The apparent reason is that it is a cybersecurity issue in a way because moonlighting may lead to such employees leaking sensitive info to rival companies.

Well, i would not know. If an employee wants to steal and sell projects, she/he can do so even if she/he is not moonlighting. Instead of the pink slip, hence, would not it be wiser to strengthen the anti piracy and pro secrecy clause in the contract? 

Similarly, an employee does not need to moonlight as an excuse for not concentrating on her/his job. Many full-timers are excellent at it, too. Do not you believe me? Go to any college. Most all lecturers sincerely teaching there, if at all lectures happen, that is, would be the CHB's teaching in two or three colleges to make the ends meet.

As for the permanent full-time staff, none can touch them once the probation period is over. The very fact, moreover, that they managed to get a full time permanent job signifies that they have godfathers and fairy mothers in the right place. Who would dare to touch such mighty masters  even if they do not conduct classes,  not complete the portion, not bother to teach with a passion for learning?

With college after college going autonomous, the situation is tougher, and worse still, because in such a context, you design the question paper as per the portion you have bothered to teach. 

Not that  such gems do not exist in the affiliated colleges. Even in the affiliated colleges, there are worthy wonders who hardly manage to conduct twenty of the mandatory forty five lectures per three credits course. Such darlings of the management know how to indirectly hint at the possible questions as their mafia gang members are on the Paper Setting Committee!

Even then, of the three papers thus set, something has to be taught. That condition is extremely lax and/or irrelevant in autonomous contexts as you yourself design the question paper.

 On the contrary, moonlighting lecturers go out of their way to make their course ideal, conducting, if necessary, unpaid extra lectures, as their possible appointment next year, beyond the whimsicality of the Head (quite a misnomer, this one!) and/or Principal, may depend on it! 

In other words, moonlighting is not always bad. Sure, to all generalizations, there are exceptions. There can be sincere full timers, and insincere part timers. Percentage wise, however, rules seemingly dominate exceptions! May be, material conditions, in all senses of this term, demand such sincerity in most cases.

When times are so tough, instead of sacking the moonlighters, why not make permanent contracts ironclad regarding secrecy/piracy?  A person, moreover, should have the right to use his/her spare time in his/her own way, without being dictated by the mighty employers, right? Theoretically and/or practically, in other words, sacking is not the solution, especially when robotics revolution is already at the doorstep, with one foot firmly wedged in!What say?

Pratima@Sensitive solutions seem better than sacking! 

Memories

 How memories have their own ways of reigning it, in fact, lording it, over our minds, right? Well, it has been raining like crazy for almost more than two hours now. It sounds and  looks almost  like a cloudburst. 

In fact, somewhere there was a huge lightning crash with each wall reverberating with its echoes.  So deafening it was that for a split second, it sounded and looked like it was right next to our lane. Huge tall trees that it has, it sounded possible, too, though it was more a feel than a fact.

And all along the only scenario I continue to remember is Aai and her reaction to the rains. She used to be rather nervous whenever there would be thunder and lightening. She was not exactly comfortable that i would go to the patio, and watch the fierce lightening. Often i would just sit right next to her, and tell her not to worry, or make hot tea, and at times, bhajji. Of course, if the eats or the tea were too much beyond her rough schedule, she would not be keen on such ceremony though.  In brief, all my lightening memories are associated with Aai.

Once i was returning after the M.A. lectures, and had to cross a huge expanse of a ground to get an auto. It was mid-May, and there were sudden summer showers with lightening and thunder. When I told her of my adventure, in the typical motherly way, Aai was very upset. She used to often tell the story of Muktai's death whenever there would be such luminous lightening.

She would also talk of 'wayu' and 'jal', the wind and the water, the limitless and extremely powerful 'panchmahabhuta's' according to her. I have always wondered hence how difficult it must have been for her  whenever Raju went on his shippie assignments as the deep seas involve only the kingdom of these two in her opinion. She would talk of, how on board a ship, there would be only infinite water and the limitless sky till the vision met the horizon. 

Memories, memories and memories! Incessant they are like the rain, and in the eyes  leave of tears a train!

Pratima@ Invisible to eyes, memories sees the soul.

Ha!Ha!Ha!

 What all types of  days get celebrated currently!!! On Saturday, it seems it was the global handwashing day. Does not it make the whole world in to a twenty first century version of Lady Macbeth? The one damned little spot that all the scents, eh, waters of Arabia would not wash off? Ha!

Well, the entire ecosystem (to use a favourite term these days) now seems to have overcome the Covid obsession, right? Otherwise, palms were peeling off with repeatedly washing them with sanitisers of all sorts! The sanitiser-making cottage industry then  had a field day indeed. All sorts, varieties and types emerged overnight. That reminds me. I must finish off the costliest variety i bought, and consistently kept on forgetting to use it.  Ha!ha!

Indeed is it worth dedicating a day to handwashing? True, unlike the First World countries, not all nations use the paper roll. Even then, a day dedicated to handwashing is much too much. The whole humanity cares for such basic sanitation, and one or the other variety of keeping oneself  clean does get invented and followed over generations, right? Ha! Ha!

Well, it seems, consumerism in the neo-capitalist scenario needs to advertise (unsold) products in some form or the other, right? Hence such days? Hence this insistence on wash or not to wash (hands, you, bum!)?  Ha!ha!ha!

Pratima@ Dedication (even of a day) must reflect real devotion, not fancy but funny, actually funky, frivolity. What say?

 

Food Fads

 Do you read up the 'advisories' in various health magazines and health supplements of newspapers? Well, yes, I do. There are two major themes such messages dwell on: healthy mind and healthy body.

Sometimes I honestly feel that all such  information is  rather like the astrological predictions published in most all newspapers. Sure I do not read these, but i do know that they are rather repetitive. In fact, it is often suggested that the predictions get juggled around. In other words, what was true for Aries today is valid for Scorpio tomorrow! I would not know as i never ever look up that column, no, not even for fun.

The health advice, i could say with some authority, is both; useful as well as repetitive. By now, for example, all of us know that we should laugh away our tensions, walk away the weight of the body, and off the mind, etc, etc and etc.

Sometimes there is a very informative article or two. Let me give you an example. If you want your fat to melt away ( the language used by such articles!), every morning you should drink a glass of hot water in to which you add fenugreek seed powder,bitter gourd juice, black pepper powder, turmeric powder, and cinnamon powder. May be, worth a try, but better with just a spoonful of each in a tall glass of warm water, right?

My problem with such 'toolboxes' to counter that enemy called dis-ease is that they are almost as unreliable as monsoon predictions and change faster than the moods of a narcissistic megalomaníac.

Why, by the time, the society settles down to the Dixit diet after a lot of hullabaloo, the vegan variety makes a grand entry. Sometimes the food items are to be weighed by milligrams, sometimes to be chosen as per their colour. Well, the variety is mind boggling, and honestly as confounding as the Piccadilly circus signal with its sixteen or is it seventeen, 'crossroads'!

Personally, I think the typical home made wholesome Marathi food, supplemented often with the Southern variety, and at times by the Northern mouthwatering dishes, with a fast or two thrown in, would feed us the best as it suits our geography, our climate and our palate, right?

Well, better to eat to live and live to eat as well, right? So why follow food fads that make us both sad, and hence bad? Instead eat healthy, and be happy!

Pratima@ If food be the music that nourishes the soul, why dance to the tunes of food fads?

Writing: A Lost Art?

 Does anyone any longer write even a letter? Thus despair the elders. Who writes a letter? Thus dismiss the youngsters. True, in the era of wapp messages, writing itself is a lost (st)art, given the use of emojis, and hence the rise of the visual, rather than the verbal, communication. 

In fact, if one were to line up all the emojis in a row, and in a smaller size, they almost look like a return to the cave/pyramid inscriptions, a script that needs deciphering.

As the mankind unmistakably seems to prefer such pictorial language, even while writing simple messages, people stumble. If at all anyone writes to begin with! Ah, that is the moot question!

Well, the communication media have made speaking easier, while writing is always more difficult as it is more responsible, needs to be thought through, has to be coherent and cohesive. Why and who bothers that much?

 Instead there are readymade proforma provided by the new technologies for every professional need, c.v. to all sorts of applications and letters, for instance. 

In addition, writing, unlike speaking, is more a long-lasting and  reliable record. True, these days, every word, too, can be recorded if your mobile has that much of a GB data card. Yet anyone can deny the authenticity of a recording, and the voice-verity check mechanism is not easily and/or cheaply available. 

Writing a simple letter, too, hence is a  business deal that is drilled by the MS Word paradigms, not to forget the Stak and Grammarly types. Human, unique, individual, personal touch is missing in writing, so to say.

As a result, writing personal emails, too, is a distant nightmare. In such a scenario, who  at all writes/cares for serious literature when cheap entertainment is easily available in abundance? 

Apparently, books sell by kilos! These are most often the "how-to" types. How to know English literature, for instance, without touching even a single text even with a barge pole is the success story today. 

Such extremely shallow 'simplified' books by pompous  but smart writers (how can anyone possibly call them authors?!?) may get gobbled up by gullible readers who, too, do not want to touch a text, forget read it, but would like a pretentious smattering of information (cannot even call it knowledge, forget wisdom). 

This fateful formula makes a very shallow, intellectually(!) rather stupid and hence extremely opinionated society which is the real tragedy! When genuine writing, great literature full of subtle complexities, like the very life itself, get substituted by smart-alecky market managers called writers and publishers, a solid void is created which kills curiosity, creativity, wonder and imagination. And thus dies writing, but who cares!

Pratima@Writing is not a craft/that is bazzar bought/nor is it in the market taught/It is an ART/That is NOT merely smart!

One-liners

 'One-liners', many think, form the prerogative of politicians and/or leaders. An  example could be the "in big, big cities, small, small things happen" version of the Bombay blasts. Such notorious comments get roasted properly. Many memes, both pictorial and verbal, thereof emerge like the mushrooms during the monsoon or the wild fires of blistering summers.

Yet another community often associated with 'one-liners'  would be the actors. "Jinke ghar kanch ke hote", the "dhai kilo ka hath"could be a few famous examples. The master, however, in this field would be Amitabh Bachchan, especially of the "angry young man" era of his career.  "Ye pulis chouki hai, tere baap ka ghar nahi" to "rishton me to hum tumhare baap lagte hai", "nam to suna hi hoga" to "don ko pakdana mushkil hi nahi", wonders these are.

In fact, it would not be totally wrong to say that"Sholay" sizzled because of multiple such 'one- liners'. Yet be it "Pushpa, I hate tears" or "Zindagi ek rangmanch hai", every superhero's superhit delivery of such one-liners is undoubtedly his/her art, but basically it is the script-writer's superb creativity.

No wonder, the field of literature bursts at seams with such quotable quotes. Be it Shakespeare's "to be or not to be" or Shelley's "if winter comes, can spring be far behind?", to quote two exceptionally famous  wise saws, the literary 'one-liners'  cross the boundaries of space and time.

Two such Sanskrit literary quotes would be "Ashadhasya pratham diwse" and "Ma Nishadh: twam", respectively by Kalidasa and by Maharshi Valmiki whose birth anniversary was recently celebrated. All such literary 'one-liners' are not merely artistic. They are basically a wonderful mirror to and deep reflection on real life and the poet's emotive yet intellectual response to multi-layered realities.

In this aspect, literature competes with religious texts which brim with the best quotes. The Biblical description of lilies, for example, shows how religious quotes can be very simple and yet deeply meaningful. Our very own Bhagwad Geeta has very many such pearls of wisdom. No wonder, "yog kshemam" becomes the soothingly pithy promise of a life insurance company.

'One-liners', in brief, are not merely "words, words, words" full of "sound and fury, signifying nothing". Rather, they are priceless diamonds whose glitter lights up our very lives. Long live quotable quotes!

Pratima@ My childhood hobby was to read up, and write down such 'one-liners' in a special notebook i still have as it was my first prize. At school, i was assigned the duty of writing such "subhashit" on the school  notice board. One of Papa's special gifts was the Reader's Digest subscription which he continued for years. The first column i would read in those childhood wonders was, yes, you guessed it right, "quotable quotes".

Karva Chauth

 Currently karwa chauth is kadwa/bitter because most feminists consider such a ritual patriarchal. Do men keep a fast for their wives? Are the men 'husband material' to begin with? These are some basic questions women are asking bitterly.

At the other end of this dialectic is the consumer critique. The day begins with lovely pic's of fully decked up actresses draped in gorgeous red Banaras silk sarees, and  showing off solid heavy jewellery. The day ends with many women, energetic despite the severe fast, rush to shops for their deserved gift, they believe.

There could be a health conscious alternative to explore as well. Such an argument would go on and on maintaining that an occasional fast or two is good for the internal organs, and hence for the entire body and general well-being. Unfortunately, in our country, fast becomes an  attempt to let  go of the food conscious control. In other words, it is believed that women eat double the normal food intake. 

Well, i would like to maintain that we need all the tastes and all the patterns in our life. So no harm eating almost the double the usual day meals. The only feel that should double is the mutual love. Hail, Karwa chauth!

Pratima@Turning and turning in the wild wide gyre/The falcon cannot hear the falconer!

In appreciation

  In appreciation 

 A mainstream actor much under-used,

 Mien smouldering, much misunderstood,

  In baritone intoned ever he a search of self,

  Thus forever a brand, with a laugh of an elf.

  Age neither withers nor tires him.

  Betters he his act, keeps each avatar trim.

  Hero@eighty, lost in wor(l)ds he does seem.

Amitabh at eighty is a phenomenon. He deserves much appreciation for constantly re-inventing himself, especially when most all had repeatedly written him off. Again and again anew he emerges, adjusting intelligently and creatively with the new norms!

Pratima@ Phoenix par excellence/Made of stuff stern/ for a newer version of self he yearns/ an echo complex of many dreams Indians'! 

Uncertainty

 Uncertainty is a great feel in my opinion. Just look at the monsoon assailing us in the month of October. How very uncertain is the time it would rush in to our schedules, right? In fact, the only thing predictable about it is its unpredictability.

Yes, without unpredictability, life would be thoroughly boring. Routine does get on to our nerves. At times, it is necessary to break it. Thus re-energised, we can rush back to the humdrum routine reality.

Necessary, however, it is to remember that uncertainty can be fun only now and then.  If repeated, it would plain be boring. Look at the monsoon itself. It is getting on everyone's nerves because by now its unpredictability is indeed predictable. 

Imagine what would happen if everything were to be predictably unpredictable or certainly uncertain. It would not merely be boring. There would be certain chaos. Look at the way the traffic is a congested chaos the moment the signals stop working. 

Sure the traffic is mad even with the signals are "in operation". There, however, is a method in that madness. Even then we tolerate it with umpteen grumbles simply because it is unpredictable only now and then.

In other words, uncertainty is acceptable only when it enters our life at certain rare times. The rhythm of life can be enjoyed only if it is a-rhythmic occasionally.  The best example thereof would be our heart. If and only if we miss a heart-beat very very rarely, it would be certainly tolerable, right? That principle runs the very universe. So better continue to believe in certainty which would make our uncertainties meaningful and attractive!

Pratima@ The new is the old/ The old is the new/In the beginning lies the end/In the end begins everything anew!

Kojagiri

 The Kojagiri Pournima is indeed a beautiful sight. The full moon in all its glory seems to shine literally like a beautiful pearl or a lovely diamond in the sky. There is always a pleasant feel in the very air, though this year the divine nip is missing, given the lingering monsoon.

The day, rather the night, brings back many memories of childhood, Aai-Papa celebrating each and every festival with fervour. Aai would always explain the etymology of "Kojagiri" as "ko jagrati", as per the Shiva-Parvati legend. Later, she would also add the Geeta reference of "ya Nisha sarv bhutanam, tasyam jagrati samyami". And, oh, yes, despite such "samskar", never ever in our home was there any religiosity or caste insistence.

What i find truly touching tonight is the memory of Aai, and her monthly chandradarshan, sighting and bowing to the moon every pournima, ever since she turned seventy-nine. She continued this practice in to her eighty-first year, too.  That would truly mean sahastrachandra  darshan, she felt, and she religiously followed this practice every pournima, however much her knees might ache and creak. Hence the celebration of  her eightieth birthday had a genuineness that was the hallmark of both their lives. 

Such sweet memories constantly flood my consciousness each and every day, and then, though I miss both of them a lot, I understand deeply what Donne meant when he insisted, "Death, thou shalt die"!

Pratima@ Lives end, but memories live, last long, and forever.

Screech Match

 Generally i prefer not to watch the multiple reality shows on the t.v. Every thing and everyone in such extravaganzas appear  made-up in every sense of the term, fake and false. They give one an awfully yucky feel. Remember how two top candidates in a music show (actually a contradiction in terms! But, these days, that is the reality and the show!) were linked up, et al, for the trite/tight TRP. Earlier such a trick was the 'birth-write' of Bollywood bonanzas. Unfortunately, now it has percolated down to most all fields, public or private, entertainment or education!

What irritates me the most about all that exhibitionism is the screeching involved therein, too close to our ears to tolerate! All of them, hosts, guests, contestants are screeching in high-pitched falsettos. It is here that one finds the source of all the possible noise pollution as all of them are screeching in to hyper-sensitive mikes. 

Compared with these attacks on our ears in our own drawing rooms, with our own devices, and within the four walls of our own homes, the "walls" at every public event are nothing much to tolerate. 

This evening i suffered the misfortune of listening to such disturbing decibels because I made the mistake of believing the tagline of a promo. Hence the sufferance of listening to a screech-match! Not only the host and the guest of this premiere were screeching, but the guest's mother, too, added her mite, eh, mike to the cacophony.

People, in brief, seem always to forget the difference between child-like and childish. Given such 'janta', can the politicians be far behind? Except for, may be, just one or two leaders, most all speakers these days are terribly screechy in every possible way.

It is in such moments that you actually hate your childhood hero, Thomas Alva Edison, and wish that all his attempts at enhancing, amplifying sound, and carrying it across wave lengths had suffered the fate of his famed failures! How lucky indeed, you reluctantly realise due to such "all sound signifying nothing" scenarios,  was Beethoven, that master of music, who started going deaf, and thus was saved from fake exhibitions of his great oeuvre!

Pratima@ Sound without much sense/makes the very ambience tense!

Mind

 What is mind? Where does it reside? Is it merely the maze of the cells and neurons in the skull? Is the mind the source of emotions? Or is it the heart? Where do thoughts originate? And the soul? How to locate it? Questions galore and answers a mess of lore! 

Indeed is the mind merely a physiological concept? Is it born at the time of birth? Do we acquire it the Locke-Skinner way, emerging on a tabula rasa via habits enforced? Or do we arrive equipped with a contraption that we can work on?

Well, such infinite questionnaires can never precisely exhaust that complex called mind, that mystery inside a riddle which is wrapped within an enigma! Is it mind that distinguishes the homo sapiens from animals? Well, i do not really think so.

Anyways, this complex vortex called mind is indeed muddled now. Yes, such such are the times now that the human mind is under constant stress, worries harry it, unknown phobias dare it, so on and so forth. 

How, and from whom,  do we learn a little to make this confused fable absolutely stable? From the yogis who would tell us to control our breath? From the psychiatrists who drown us in therapies and tablets? From the social media kinda punditry which tells us to laugh away our woes, etc, etc, etc?

I think our real guru's can be the animals around us whom we consider mindless, and hence inferior to us, but whose tiny and short lives, in my opinion,  are full of real lessons that can tremendously teach us to make our minds healthy and wise. 

Let me give you a few examples. How about learning love, kindness, honesty and dedication from our pet dog? Treat him any which way, ignore him thoughtlessly;  he never ever would waver in his devotion to you. In fact, he would guess your low moods, would just come and snuggle up to you, would distract you with its sweet goofiness. In fact, your dog cares for you as much as your parents do. Tell yourself honestly if you yourself care that much for your siblings.

Have you ever seen an ant? Compared to its tiny size, we are Himalayan in proportion.  Yet it can teach us thousand fundas about life. Is it ever lazy? listless? Tired? Bored? It carries comfortably, though obviously with terrific efforts, a food item at least fifty times more its own weight or size.

Such is its survival strategy. Put an obstacle in its way. Surely it would work a way out, skirting around it, climbing over it, and what have you. It would never wail nor wait. 

It is never selfish nor self-obsessed either. It cares for its entire family. It works for the welfare of the entire community. The assigned duty it does perfectly without a grumble or grumpiness,  and manages to inform and warn others of the ilk of any approaching danger.

 And here we are, million times bigger in size in comparison with that tiny creature whom we carelessly crush under our gargantuan toes, but eternally we are grumbling, grieving, grudging.  And we call ourselves brainy, and that tiny wholesomeness mindless! 

And the spider? We find it yucky, wipe out its fabulously woven ingenious web the moment we locate it. Very patiently it weaves it back, equally beautifully, and gossamer thin yet real strong. Have you ever seen in your garden a cobweb, drenched with the lashing rains, yet shining bright in the morning glory? 

How difficult their lives, too, must be! And full of innumerable dangers and threats! Have you ever seen them eternally cribbing, unhappy, depressed, and sad? And we call ourselves evolved!

Yes, it is but obvious and normal to feel unhappy when traumas, small and big, assail us. But when we have every possible support system, beginning with our own reserves of untapped energies and strengths  to the endless, rock solid support of our near and dear ones, how long should we keep on fussing, and coddling ourselves? 

Time we learn to be mindful from the nature that surrounds us! A tree mercilessly cut, truncated, blooms anew with a tiny sprout, ready yet again to weather every storm and enjoy every ray of sunshine. Let our minds learn such joyful lessons of a survival, fittest and finest!

Pratima@ Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is to come/Today train your mind to grow wholesome!

Monsoon marooned

 It is traditional wisdom, they say, that it rains a little during the Navaratri that lead to the Dasara festival. In a way, if we look at it scientifically and objectively, beyond the emotionally charged convention, a spell of rains around this time is but normal because by this time, the monsoon would almost be beating the retreat.

This year, however, the monsoon refuses to 'quit India' with a tenacity that would make any colonial master proud of its consistency! Even after the festival, it is raining rather heavily.

Most everyone is now real bored with and tired of this season, actually a source literally of the re-emergence of life after a harsh summer. Now the daily routine of the  humid claustrophobia of afternoons giving way to late afternoon or evening rain lashings is so typical that even the Russia-Ukraine melodrama on the world stage for the last six, or is it seven, months appears less lengthy!

Sure this monsoon marooning has absolutely exposed the urban infrastructure, or rather the lack of it. Much worse, however, are the troubles of the agriculture sector. Despite being a city person, i can completely identify with the woes of the farming community, beyond the fears of a frenetic future food scarcity. Let me explain why-n-how.

In my backyard, i always plant veggies around this time, keep it neat and nice as ever. This year, however, the constant rains do not even allow proper pruning and  weeding as the unrestrained wild shrubs and plants grow back literally in a day. If this is the case of my small little backyard, what must be the despair of a farm repeatedly inundated with wasteful rains?

"Rain, rain, come again/on the planes of Spain", the childhood rhyme, it seems, needs now to be re-written as "rain, rain, go away/in cricket crazy India, we are tired of your power play"!

Pratima@ Excess always leads to distress!

Dasara

 Mythically, the stories associated with the Dasara festival come from both the Indian epics, Mahabharat and Ramayan. As per the Ramayan, it signifies the victory of the good over the (d)evil. Hence the Ravan-Dahan events, especially up North and in traditional folk arts. As per the Mahabharat, it marks the day the Pandavas ended their incognito hardships.

In Hindi, the Marathi Dasara becomes 'Dashahara'. In the context of this nomenclature, I suppose, both as a society and as an individual, we could re-define the festival. May be given the excessive identity politics these days, the rituals would have to continue, I suppose.

In addition, the 'dashhara' could refer to ten vices that we, as a society and as an individual,  could delete from our selves. If we can manage to cross at least one limit, one border line in our working, thinking, or what have you, that would be the real 'simmolanghan'/ the cross-over, the transcending of self-destructive habits.

Here let us mention a few of these horrendous habits. Let us keep on thinking through those habits and these changes on a constant, almost daily, basis. For example. as a society, different affiliations could at the least stop mocking each other. That would settle down troubled waters. 

Over-generalisation, yaking away/letting loose your tongue could be the other faults that need targeting, rather than targeting other innocent people. Such a change has to be indeed inevitable currently, i suppose.

At the individual level, a great deal of self-reflexivity is indeed necessary. So is transparency in daily dealings. Well, hope that many people would instil in themselves, self-discipline, i suppose. 

Any unusual idea would help us accept our self betterment programme and make it concrete, and float it asap. So put on your thinking caps (caps were once very necessary for the evening Dasara ritual) and reflect away on mitigating your faults. You have nothing to lose, but your cupidities!

Pratima@  We stand already improved when we recognise our faults, our foibles, and subtly start working on them to become better versions of our own selves.

 

Shakti

 The Navratra celebrates womanhood as it is a festival dedicated to Shakti, the strength of the feminine principle, the woman power. Given the times today, what does being a Shakti mean? 

Traditionally, Shakti was especially venerated in the Shiva tradition, as the feminine concept, and by extension as the respective consorts of all the male deities. Apparently, the tantriks believe in the Shakti concept as well. As I do not know enough of that field and as i am not interested in it, i do not want to discuss it.

What does Shakti mean today? Shallow critique would immediately decry its  consumerist debasement in wearing a particular colour per day. Well, beyond such obvious and rather typical breast beating, what does Shakti mean today?

Awareness is all, I would say. As it is, awareness is easily accessible to most all, given the multi-media mode of communication. The only initiation one constantly needs to upgrade is instilling the honeybee habit.

 What does a honeybee do? It can extract  honey from the wildest flower. In the process, it helps pollination so much so that it is believed that if there were no honeybees, the entire would collapse in no time. The honeybee is ever busy and never bothers anyone. Provoked unnecessarily though, its fatal sting is of the worst type.

I suppose, that could be quite an apt metaphor for being a Shakti. Constantly search for the best in every possible way to keep on improving yourself (collecting the honey even from the wildest flowers), help others grow in the process (pollination), be so active and involved in your process of building yourself that the silliness-es around do not even enter your orbit, and yet when provoked beyond tolerance, give such a stinging response that the bully beats a retreat from harassing not only you but other innocent victims. 

Thus one becomes Durga as well as Mahishasurmardini, given the very many "mahish" in very many forms that one encounters most everywhere, i suppose. That would be the real Shakti, beyond the rituals and the daily decking up for the nine days, including the dance festivities, i would say!

Pratima@Shakti is the power to constantly re-invent oneself to a still better selfhood.

This is no century for the aged!

 Remember W.B Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium"? It refers to this fab line, "this is no country for the aged". The title of our blog today plays with it a little to convey the malaise of the twenty first century. 

The demographic data across the world say that many countries are aging fast. Actually, India is not far behind, despite the so-called demographic dividend. That is tragic due to multiple reasons.

First and foremost, India now absolutely lacks the respect it had for the elders. Let it be the father of the family or the teachers, earlier nobody would fail in using the honorifics while referring to them. Now they are supposed to be friends, and hence been demoted to singularities in multiple ways!

True, respect never depends on honorifics or mere age. Yet respect is very much due, too. May be, it is the fragmentation of the joint family or the excessive need for individual 'space', may be, most all people are least concerned about others. "Bagban", let us remember on the Day of the Aged that falls on October 1,  is no longer mere Bollywood balderdash. It IS very much a reality.  

No wonder, the father who was the living ATM till the mid-twenties of the kid becomes a bother when the old man turns sixty. I saw a cute video and read a brief article. Both of them dealt with the young man's irritation with the fact  that the now forgetful parent repeatedly asks the same question or wants to hold the son's firm and strong hand, activities the son himself loved as a boy some eons ago, it appears to the man,  now a robust  young man, and hence frustrated with the wobbly old father.

There is another angle to the whole issue, and it deals with the dirty monies, stupid! Well, given the huge informal sector in our country, just ten per cent of the senior citizen category enjoy a pension. Even the big companies do not really accord any regular pension. There is no other social  security/safety net to fall back upon.

Much worse is the situation of the farmers. Gen next is hardly interested in farming. The erstwhile family division leading to multiple small farms creates nothing but huge problems, neck-deep at that. Costs incurred never match the produce-generated lack of profit. The debt informally incurred keeps on growing, like the destructive cancer cells. The broken dreams, like the crevices in a land parched due to draught, h(a)unt the oldies left behind in deserted villages!

The condition of the widows, outnumbering hugely the widowers, is truly tragic. Many of them learn ugly realities of life at such an advanced age. The silly t.v serials add fuel to fire, and they are subtly but viciously ill-treated. Hence the title of the blog.

Well, ageism is  indeed stupid. Everyone is going to grow old, and the realities would be much worse then. Time we start making this century amenable for the old.

Pratima@Where the elders are not ill treated/in to that land of true freedom, let this century awake!

The smile says it all

 October 2 is always the day for all these pious homilies heaped on the Mahatma. At times, i feel though that he would have  chuckled heartily at all the serious heavy stuff.

Undoubtedly, Gandhiji was a powerhouse of very many great qualities. Remarkable, however, in my opinion was his ability to laugh. His pics often show a very transparent child like exuberant smile. Absolutely surely it was without any malice.  

That smile was very much there, and always. The anecdote with the King of England and/or Churchill (as both the versions are quite quoted) and the clothes he wore is too famous to merit a repeat mention.

In my opinion, because he could laugh at the incongruities with a slight touch of gentle irony, he could own up honestly his own youthful blunders. Let me give an example. From "My Experiments with Truth" is often quoted a much anthologised piece wherein he laughs at his own awkward attempts to dance, to play the violin, to be the perfect English gentleman. Such limpid honesty would not be possible without a genuine chuckle at his own younger self.

May be, one could go a step further, and maintain that he could narrate that insult in South Africa dispassionately because he could with a gentle irony note the incongruity of it all. 

In other words, laughter, too, was a mode he used to open up the negativities of the contexts he faced throughout his personal and political career. In a way, the very notion of non-compliance is an attempt at mildly pointing out to the other person the incongruities in his stance as perceived from this side, the non-dominant one.

Laughter anyways is always the withering weapon of the weak. Look at the Fool or even the Mad Tom avatar of Edgar in Shakespeare's King Lear. Both the Fool and Tom clothe in comedy the withering comments on the goings-on. Not to forget Falstaff, I can multiply literary examples million fold. Even in classical Sanskrit drama, there is a "vidushak", the court clown, who used the 'hasya ras", the comedy, to comment on the really ludicrous, even when it pertained to the all powerful monarch. Even in popular tales, we have a Birbal, a Tenali Ram, for instance, who poke fun at the asinine stupidities in the higher echelons.

Well, to get back to Gandhiji, may be, it was this feathery touch that made him accessible to a Bollywood adaptation? Possibly! I have not seen the movie though. In brief, laughter says it all; his knowing take, gentle though, on the ways of the world, may be.

Pratima@Long live laughter, the truly non-violent method of non-co-operation!

 

L'inconnu

 At times, one wonders why a stalwart like the erstwhile Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, continues to remain the inconnu. May be, because he was not ingenious enough to tom-tom his achievements from the rooftop? May be, because he was not shrewd enough to build a smart clout? Why did his genuine work not get him the accolades he deserved?

Sure, he IS recognised. A film like The Tashkent Files did open up the dubious debate dealing with his mysterious death.  The recognition may be qualitative. Quantitatively, however, it is almost zilch.

Why is it indeed so? Often is it the case even in the ordinary lives of the common people. At least, as the Prime Minister, Shastriji's worth was somewhat valued. In real, ordinary life, however, often there would be people who would contribute like a stalwart. Often, however, they are noteworthy due to the lack of interest in, and even ignorance of and about, their genuine contribution and worth. Sure such sincere genuine human beings love what they do and do not care much about any recognition. 

That is their greatness. How about people surrounding them and/or the society? Does not such a neglect show up the others, and in extremely poor, downright bad light? It is okay to talk about a great diamond being thrown away as a stone. This analogy, too, is a deep comment on the person stupid enough, as someone not able to differentiate between a diamond and a stone. Whose loss is it anyways?

I think it vitiates the entire ethical ambience of the family/the institute/the society that does not validate enough the value of the silent but genuinely sincere person. Why so? Well, the message such treatment transmits is that what matters is only the glitter, and not the real worth. Subtly it dissuades everyone from contributing genuinely, from putting in her/his best. In effect is thus lowered the quality of life. Woe betide a society that ill-treats and/or ignores a good soul!

Pratima@ No great tombstone may them memorable make/ Their silent goodness leaves behind a deep ache!/What a loss, oh, what a pity/what a grievous goof-up in our duty!

The first time...

 The first time, they say, it is history. The second time around, it is hilarious comedy. Well, i never knew that could be true of famed scholarship. As things stand, yesterday i was to listen to a  famous scholar at an international online seminar. I was rather looking forward to it coz when I had read the stuff in the first flush of excitement regarding the decolonisation process and the post-colonial saga, the analysis did sound exciting.

Much water has thence flown under the bridge. Well, sadly, however, nothing new seemed to flourish on that tree of knowledge! It was the same old beaten to death argument which now sounded quite banal, repetitive and boring. 

So predictable was the analysis that one could very well have guessed the next syllable. Honestly so repetitively tiresome was the entire stuff that it looked a perfect example of the gist/chaff/mill justice.

It almost sounded like an old fashion(ed) in intellectual disguise. In such a scenario, one pities oneself for imagining that the argument might have gained on finesse what it now seemed to lack  on depth. Instead, one felt out of depth in the "in the room/the intellectuals come and go/talking of the pet foe" scenario to quote Eliot's Prufrock with a slight alteration.

Undoubtedly, there is a framework within which to examine one's ideas,concepts, thoughts. Should not, however, some basic and/or radical changes be visible in either the framework or the thought processes or the ideas? Otherwise, would not it boil down to academic cynicism, and further would not it be absolutely undemocratic, not to mention lazy as far as the theoretical rigour would go.  I would not know, and hope never to know!

Pratima@ Are arguments and knowledge, too, like the iron ore in a wet place? Seem to go rusty! Skim and scan repeatedly this blog to understand why I feel that a seminar could be quite Prurockian! No, no need to worry. The analysis is brand new, and could add to the fund of your knowledge regarding doing the seminar rounds  in words few.