Friendship Day

 Certain rituals are rather routine, and hence banal and boring by now. Yes, I am referring to the Friendship Day. The celebration is so much a ritual now that even its criticism as a convenient concession to capitalism also appears trite, vapid and cliched.

Well,  these days, you cannot quote Sudama and such myths to celebrate friendship. Oh, yes, 'friends' these days are mere fair weather friends. The moment you are not useful to them, they drop you like a hot potato. They behave as if you do not exist at all. They are forever busy to spare even a minute to talk to you, while they can gas on and on,  gossiping with 'the' gang, and for ages. You are plain amused at yourself for ever thinking of such curiosities as possible friend material at all. 

Hence on this friendship day, a little think-through about who is a friend. In my opinion, a friend can be a person who basically respects you. Such a person would not two-time, would not stab in the back, would not spread gossip slyly and secretly so as to 'manage' some silly and minor gains. 

A friend is always upfront about the apparent mistakes, possible errors even when the tone for explicating these can be gentle. A friend always has a friend's back in absentia, would stand up for the friend's honour, right?

Given such realities, I suppose, the best friends should be the immediate family who would always have your welfare at heart. Books, whether writing or reading them, are best buddies, too, as the whole universe, in all its complexities and absurdities, its beauties and glories, literally unravels in front of  you. So are hobbies like music, painting, gardening. A pet, especially a dog, can be a great companion, in fact, often the best one.

Personally I am of the opinion that THE best friend you can ever have is YOU Yourself. Thus can you freely critique yourself, better yourself as your only comparison is with yourself alone. By trying to be a better version of yourself by the day, you increase the respect quotient hugely, too. There is no question here of consciously belittling or of compromising on genuineness, right? The moment you achieve this balanced relationship, bliss is life, and every day is a  friendship day!

Pratima@I suppose, the entire human species better tie, and as soon as possible,  a forever friendship band to nature and environment, right? 

Tiger's truth

 Remember the "jungle, jungle hawa chali hai" jingle? Yes, I am referring to "Mowgli". Most Indians thus got to know Shere Khan, the truly wild, wicked tiger from Kipling's "Jungle Book".   

He was not vastly different from our other childhood read's, be it Aesop's "Fables" or Vishnu Sharma's "Panchtantra." A cruel, wicked, fierce animal always on the prowl! The folk wisdom of the wily cat as its aunt added to its notoriety. No wonder, the teenage read's of the Manohar Malgaonkar kinda of colonial romances made us appreciate the Jim Corbett's of the 'hunter of the man-eater' variety.

The happily growing numbers of this truly majestically handsome animal in the numerous tiger sanctuaries make me feel, however, that unlike the popular perceptions,  a tiger is actually a shy and a reserved animal, rather sleek, quite efficient at fulfilling its natural needs, resting otherwise 'cool-ly' in a shade, blending with the background that matches its unique stripes.

Just as locating various shapes in the fleeting clouds can be great fun, much better is the excitement of assigning psychological profiles to animals. The rabbit, for example, would be the classic case of a passive-aggressive personality. The rhino with its huge body and its skin would literally be the thick-skinned baddie who is not easy to bash up either.

A lion in this scheme would be extroversion incarnate, given the 'pride'. The tiger would, however, be the ultimate introvert, lost literally within its stripes. An absolute loner, hence with a unique mystique! A tiger always reminds me of the mafia masters, rarely sited which is rather good as the sight would be quite a terror.

I suppose, it is such type-casting that made the poaching of the tiger rather legit. Luckily, however, the glamour of the tiger safaris  amidst susurrating forests has saved this wondrous animal from its almost near extinction. May his tribe grow, flourish fast and forever! 

Pratima@In the recent most "Man ki baat", the P.M. listed the successful attempts of tiger species specific conservation. He talked of how the man-tiger clashes are avoided by the human(e) co-existence. Truly essential for the natural cycle, may it live quietly happy in the interior parts of the forest. Happy world tiger day!.

Poles apart?

 Science and literature are supposed to be poles apart. Are they indeed? In my opinion, there are any number of similarities between the two. So, even if they are two different cultures, to quote the famous C.P.Snow analogy, they are vastly similar, too.

Why do I say so? First and foremost, both need vast imagination and deep creativity. To think of a new paradigm in science, a scientist has to be both creative and imaginative so much so that the new scientific  and/or technological solutions often appear as images, and in dreams.

Similarly, literature, too, has its own logic and its own discipline, however much may it be mystified as "divine frenzy". So much is the method in this supposed madness that critics can find ever newer patterns and paradigms in each individual text and/or in the oeuvre by an author, or in a genre, and so on.

Want the currently popular, best ever example of the deep connection between the two? Remember the robots and the AI. Both have depended on vast imagination, deep insights, and a disciplined and logical  intellectual rigour for their very emergence and  their existence!

And yet robotics and the AI of every possible latest design prove irrefutably that science and literature  are poles apart. Why? Well, science, as robotics and the AI prove, is absolutely amoral, while literature is deeply ethical. 

Similarly, science and technology, especially, are use-, nay, even user-centred. In other words, their fortune is essentially utilitarian. Literature, on the contrary, is actually 'useless'. Why, these days nobody reads deeply. People read just self-help books, even these are preferred  to be 'heard', as ten-minute audio summaries! Who cares if the summaries are imprecise, and the language is incorrect? Online authors are a-plenty!

Well, let me end this small little piece with an image from the Roman mythology. In my opinion, the relationship between the two is like the two-faced Roman god, Janus who has two faces, both looking in different directions, one backward and the other forward. Yet the brain that drives them and the mind that underlies them is the same, right? 

Pratima@ If they are indeed poles apart, for a full life, both these poles are as much needed as the earth depends both on the South and the North poles for the diurnal rotations!

Is this a country for senior citizens?

 The title of our blog, as you can guess, a take off on a famous title by W.B.Yeats, addresses a major issue in our country, especially because today ends the senior citizens week. 

Why say so, is that your question? Well, ageism is horribly rampant in our country. We are so sold out on the so-called demographic dividend that we are eternally mocking the senior citizens, actually a huge and exponentially increasing  group, just for their being senior citizens!

Age is actually nothing but a mere number. The senior citizens today are much better than the youth today who mostly have only one quality, the so-called youth. In the age of Info Tecnology, they are only good at using technology as an addiction, be it the now-out-on-its-way t.v. or the currently ubiquitous mobile. 

They would never use the t.v., if at all, to watch better channels, and they use the mobile for the silly social media or for binge watching. Just because they can use in a little more adroit way  the programmes, already coded and uploaded and channelised by someone else, they continue to think they are smart!

Actually, they mostly create nothing. They pride on, for example, how they can use the ChatGPT to download answers to questions they could never even imagine! Their hold over every  natural language, including the mother tongue, is extremely poor. They think they are smart because they communicate using the abbreviations as slang and the emojis!

Why talk of them? Well, in comparison (an activity they are very good at in a jealous, mean way) with the better among them, any, even a mediocre, senior citizen would be the best, as a human being, as a citizen, as a communicator, as a creator, and, oh, yes, as a user of technology which even a child can master with a little bit of practice.

Those who are now senior citizens, newly minted or already well in to senior citizenship, have cared for and developed in a huge way all that makes anybody a human being, be it relationships, be it knowledge  creation, be it social awareness, be it conscious conscientiousness. Their humour continues to be sardonic, never wicked nor mean. They have always been  truly progressive in every field. 

Unlike the so-called youth today who are masters of none and jacks of all that is ordinary! The only thing they are okay at is the ageism bias! Cry, hence, the beloved country coz is it at all country for the aged? That is the question!

Pratima@ Yeats' solution was the soul singing the songs of contentment which yet again the aged are much, much better at, mostly because they do not know just the sole, whether be of a shoe or of a rampant sole/(self-centered-)ness!

Memorable Events

 July 26 this year marked two memorable events. The first one is the Silver Jubilee of  the martyrdom of our soldiers at Kargill. Across the nation, it created a patriotic fervour of pride in our army. The army protects the country even in impossible conditions such as the Himalayan heights where normal breathing would be difficult , not to mention the climate vagaries. Yet the braveheart soldiers take their profession to such heights, both literally and metaphorically, that they deserve a forever salute from the citizens.

If this celebration at the national zenith was august, at the international horizon unfurled a unique event, the inaugural ceremony of the Olympics in Paris. Frenchies, and especially Parisians, are famous for fashion-consciousness. It is, moreover, the hundredth anniversary of the event in Paris. That is to say, the Olympics take place in Paris exactly a century later.

No wonder, the 'wide open' games, to quote the motto of the event, began beautifully, what with laser lighting of the Olympic flame, Celine Dion singing from the Eiffel Tower, the beautiful boats sailing down the Seine, the works!

For a month now, the best in various sports would present their sporting skills. This Olympics would highlight the hi-tech use of the AI in an the arena of international sports.   To attract  the Gen Z, and onwards, youngeraudiences, there will be four new disciplines: sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing and break dancing or "breaking".

For a month on, enjoy the "melody" (to quote from the theme song of the Indian Olympic team) of the magical mo(ve)ments presented by the best in sports.

Pratima@ A memorable day indeed!

Monsoon Madness

 Every year it happens. There are two masks to it. The title must have clarified what I am talking about. Let us talk of these two masks. Behind the first one lie the comparatively well-off citizens. They live in rather posh societies right by the riverside. 

Do not they know the dangers of flooding when their gated society is right next to the flood line of the river bed? Who allows the construction of such buildings? Who is to blame? The corrupt unconcerned officials in the system and/or the educated, unconcerned citizens/buyers who wake up to their rights only during the monsoon? Do not these citizens have any responsibilities to Mother Nature at least? Where would the monsoon waters, regular or excessive, go if the rivers are not allowed any breathing space at all? Whole cities are entirely carpeted with cement roads with inadequate drainage and river beds are encroached upon with hi-fi societies. Where does the monsoon water flow in to?

Like the 'adventure and selfie freaks' who are up to all sorts of stunts for a reel and an adrenaline high, but want the systemic help in the hour of crisis, are not the apartment buyers also very much responsible for the havoc every monsoon causes?

Now let us look at the other mask. Your WhatsApp must be flooding with cuuuute and oh-so-politically-correct messages about how you should help the swatch sweepers because their bastis are flooded. Why do not these melting hearts, before the monsoon, take upon themselves the politically correct and socially very much necessary duty of gathering all the basti-wallahs and cleaning up the nullahs whose centuries-old beds are encroached by the ghettoes? Why conveniently hide behind the governance duties of the system? Why do not such 'aware' and concerned/caring citizens constructively advise their support staff of all sorts not to build juggies in to the river/nullah beds? Why do not these melting hearts conduct sit-in's and/or protests before the monsoon for cleaning up of nullahs whose banks are marauded to the brim?

The heavy rains are  not completely under human control, though human beings ARE responsible for the climate change, too. Where can the excess (or even regular) monsoon waters in the catchment areas of dams, necessary for human consumption yet again, go if downstream water beds are encroached every which way? 

The politically correct responses are absolutely partial, moreover. They would blast, and rightly so, the roads and constructions work in the Himalayas. Ask them about the more than hundred years old mud-n-mortar Mullaperiyar dam which is a ticking water bomb. All of them would go absolutely, and conveniently, deaf-n-dumb because it is politically correct to blast only a certain political party! Incidentally, I wrote to Ravish Kumar for a video on this issue. No response at all. Not a single video has happened on this theme, at least not according to my limited knowledge.

Human hypocrisies  and selfishness-es of all sorts are the real and only cause behind the annual monsoon madness! It happened last year, nay decade, it has happened this year, it will continue to happen next year because Mother Nature, typically like kind parents, however furious, continues to forgive!

Pratima@Equally are responsible for the 'curious' (in all senses of the term) annual monsoon madness, the system and the citizens!

A forever day

 They are a miniature island in the infinite oceans where the norm is the raging storms. Yet the Sindabad desire to roam these watery ways stretched up to the very horizon is strong enough. And after every tempestuous adventure, or even pleasant excursion, that small little island, however long lost it may appear, always appeals. Yes, parents are the Ithaca of each of our forays. Always welcoming, forever fostering!

July 24 apparently is the National Parents' Day. Much deserved for sure! Actually, every day, even when we are grown-up, is the parents' day. This bond is a natural fix. Better than any fevicol. It nurtures, moreover, while binding. Like a lubricant that keeps the machine going, however much rickety.

They give us the very life, the very values that make us. The sacrifices they make for us are infinite, beginning with the lack of sleep in our babydom to the sleepless nights worrying over our well-being. Even when a child is wayward, parents alone never give up on him/her. 

Despite all disagreements, every disappointment,  each distraction, any deterioration, this is the only tie that knows no divorce. The parental woe is a heart-ache you understand only when you yourself attain the parent mode/mould. The parent feel, in brief,  is so soothing that even an ultra-modern DINK couple wants to be a pet or a plant parent!

In the mobile world today, ambitions take wards way away. Aging parents, left alone, need NRIPA (non resident Indians' parents association) or an old age home. No wonder, a socially aware billionaire like Ratan Tata has thought of a new and much needed venture named 'parent pals'. It gives the senior citizens a young assistant who in return gets a good pay package. No wonder, I would like to repeat  at the end what this opinion piece began with, yes, parents' day is forever.

Pratima@ So strong is this bond that great poets had to begin their magnum opus, be it Kalidasa's "Kumarsambhav" or Milton's "Paradise Lost", with a reference to it. Every which way, forever IS the parents' day.

 

A Sage Saga

 Some people are born to be great, and in every field. Look at the life of Lokmanya Tilak, for instance, whose birth anniversary falls on July 23. He was a great patriot. The British knew absolutely that this "father of the Indian discontent" was the real danger to them, and their power in India.

Tilak was a radical in politics, and he supported the revolutionaries. Yet he consciously chose conservativism when it came to societal issues. His argument was "political independence precedes societal freedom", especially because in his opinion given this prioritisation, the coloniser could not interfere in the local religious/moral issues.

He knew the common man well enough to gauge with political acumen that a religious festival such as Ganeshotsav and a historical event such as Shiv Jayanti could be used to awaken the nationalistic fervour in the dormant society. He promoted using art forms such as the folk ''powada" to drama with political undertones to energise the societal conscience.

He was a scholar to whom goes the theory of the Arctic home of the Vedas which, however, currently is being misused to wedge a divide between the Southern non-Aryans to the Northern Aryans. He was a committed teacher who established the DES. 

He was, I would like to maintain, the first few to understand and use the power of the media. His Marathi newspaper "Kesari" and English newspaper "Maratha" were the source of political unrest then.

Considered the leader of the downtrodden masses then, currently, however, given the dominant identity politics, he is the elitist leader. He would have fiercely attacked such intellectual chicanery! In my opinion, his genuine radicalism rests in such honesty.

He was radical enough to stand by unusual ideas so much so that apparently he advised his son that the young man can even be a cobbler, but THE BEST around. Fun it is when he is now judged from within a caste framework. Times, they, a-change, and the great, however superb, would be victims to this shift. For the knowing few, however, they are the lodestars who always lead to the right path.

Pratima@ The very affinity for the unique makes us special. 

The eternal ice cream

It is the middle of the summer season.  So sweltering and hot is the day that you feel you are sitting inside an oven. Even when the body temperature is such that the thermometer could burst, indeed low is the morale. Imagine a cone or a cup of ice-cream that the non-existent wish fairy puts in your hand.

Voilà! You are yet again the kid your parents indulged with yet another ice cream, lovingly, without your having to throw any tantrum ever. Childhood days are back again. Spoon after spoon of ice cream literally melts in the mouth till even the cone is eaten up. You are happy, contented, and yet you crave for more.

Such is the magic of an ice cream that it can melt anyone on this earth. I do not think there is anybody on this earth who dislikes an ice-cream. I think that even in an igloo, a birthday party would end with dollops of ice cream!

Such is the craving for ice cream because it is not just " thanda, thanda, cool, cool". It tickles the taste buds in a simply unique way. No Thums Up can beat a cup of ice-cream. Specially mouthful, and literally so,  is the ice-cream made at home, in the good ole ice-cream maker, or even when beaten in the mixie, and set in the fridge. I suppose, the taste lies somewhere in that together feel. 

As for me, my favourite coffee, too, assumes the avatar of an ice cream in the summer. Oh, yes,  I suppose it is the fantasy of every child, to be down with tonsillitis. Why? Well, apparently Doctor Uncle would advise lots of ice cream as the after operation therapy!

The saga of ice cream is such that it can melt any heart, and yet it warms up  the mindscape with the nicest of memories. Yes, yesterday was the ice cream  day. Well, ask every kid of any age group, every minute, nay, every second would be the ice cream time, and life-long!

Pratima@ The fount of eternal childhood is found in a 'bar' (loved in college days, eh?), in a 'cone' (hated during school days, especially in the maths classroom), and in a 'cup' (always cheery and cherished at any age). Ice-cream is forever!

Guru Purnima

Guru Pournima! As usual,  I received many students' ardent wishes for the day. Sure I was both elated and thankful for my students' response. Yet I would like to accede most humbly that a guru is sure much more than a mere subject teacher.

Who is a guru? A guru gives you a vision. This vision both clarifies and enriches your life. The guru thus gives you goals worthy of  a challenge to your very 'i'-dentity. But these goals are not merely related to progress in the earthly life. Rather, the goals a guru gives enhance your selfhood.

In that sense, our first guru would be the parents. They initiate us in to life in every possible way. Next, in my opinion, our pets are our gurus, too,  as they teach us selfless love. 

The great books we read are our gurus, too, as they add intellectual sophistication and a depth of vision to our selves. Nature, in my opinion, shows us what grandeur is, and thus enlarges and deepens our vision.

In brief, a guru is all that is divine in our life. The guru principle makes us better as a human being, and thus sure deserves  our most humble and permanent gratitude!

Pratima@ A guru  is god in human(e) form!

When afraid,

When afraid, when in fear, what to do? Is that your question, too? Let me tell you what I do. Yes, obviously, like everybody else on this earth, I, too, feel afraid, especially because weird characters, speaking aloud in Hindi, are always loitering in my lane, very early morning through midnight, and beyond. Who are they? Are they sent by someone to cause terror? How to answer such questions? Where is the solid proof? How thus to confront them?

Instead, better to discuss the tricks I use to overcome any possible fear. First and foremost, I completely ignore the weirdos. Let me give you two examples. In the morning, six a.m. onwards, there are these characters speaking ALOUD in Hindi. All along, I am in the kitchen completing all the household chores. For one thing, my chores are completed on time, with the stupid chatter out of earshot. Yet another gain is that the fools think I am asleep, while all along I am at the right place at the right time.

The second instance deals with the neighborhood kids. One girl of about ten always gets her friends nearby, and they are forever SCREAMING aloud. Now if one were to confront them, one would be accused of all sorts of things as they are children, difficult to believe though, as their chatter and actions are more vicious than adults'. I use hence the earphones, especially because around their so-called playtime, I have online lectures! With the earphones on, their fool(-n-)hardy "playing" cum screaming is wiped out completely. 

Yet another trick is I always keep the main gate and the curtains closed. With the lights on, I can concentrate on my work, while the spying cannot fathom my exact activities.

In other words, I follow the guerrilla strategies of Shivaji Maharaj. In other words, the best strategy when in fear is to mislead the perpetrator, keep the creeps guessing and believing exactly opposite of what the real scenario is. Thus they prove to the whole world their assenine stupidity and I get along my plans and my life quietly and peacefully!

Pratima@Ignore the fools which irritates them, and thus they advertise aloud their stupidity to whole world.

Being humane

 'Being humane' is the theme of our blog today. No, do not worry. I have not run my car over some unsuspecting poor soul whose tired sleep after a taxing day became his forever sleep. Then my motto would have been 'being human', right?

Such is the society that perpetrators of such heinous crimes are considered 'hero'es still! Why, they are literally worshipped, too! In fact, I have never understood the huge fan following of film stars, cricketers, and politicians. The last of the three at least pretend to make a career of serving people. Many may believe that they serve themselves actually!

Well, personally I am of the opinion that the worst politician, however corrupt, does his/her wee little bit for the society, at least because it is his/her profession. As for film stars or players, they take huge, hefty pay cheques, and in return, is much done for the larger whole? Surely they entertain. They are paid for it, right? Yes, they do care for their progeny. But it is their bounden parental duty. Nothing much to marvel about!

What is being humane then? Well, in my opinion, being humane is accepting the fact that one can at times make a mistake, too. Being humane is never forgetting that pointing an accusing finger at others makes the other four curl back to YOU! Being humane in my opinion is not playing double games, not  using, not backstabbing an innocent person for one's own selfish ends.  Being humane in my opinion is not making every minor or major fight in to a huge ego issue. 

Being humane is offering and accepting an apology. Being humane is maintaining decent relationships, surely in the professional arena. Being humane is not hounding or casting black magic spells on someone just because that person is far superior to you every which way.

Being humane is being creative, not critical. Being humane is being intelligent and intellectual with a certain set of ideals and principles. Being humane is being able to cry as well as happily smile, not mock meanly.  Being humane is in brief being humane!

Pratima @Where mercy, pity and laughter dwell, there dwells the divine, too!

Emoji Enthusiasm

 I think ours must be the only blog that does not use any emoji at all. To begin with, blogs are mostly vlogs (video-enabled) these days. Whatever little explanation, if needed at al abundant are the uses the emojis.

Emojis are characters in a currently visuzl language. Just like any real time language, the emoji version, has its own dialects. Each generation, the Gen Z, the Gen Next, and what have you, has its own meaning of each emoji, it seems.Well, already are available dictionaries of emojis. The only blessing is that the explanation therein, the Lord be thanked, is in plain English!

Why does not our blog use emojis? In my opinion, currently the world is regressing back to the visual from the verbal mode of com11munication. Ancient hieroglyphics used these emoji kind of symbols, and it took generations of human beings to arrive at the verbal mode. Why then revert back to the  cave mode of communication ? Why turn the wheels of time, of human progress backwards?

Yet 111111another major reason which makes me suspicious of the emojis is that emojis are exclusive by nature. That is to say, only a certain cabal knows the exact meaning of  each emoji. Communication never can be progressive with such silly snobbery!

Apparently, the use of emojis saves time. What is it used for? For aimlessly scrolling and 'thumbing' the information overload? In fact, the laziness induced by the excessive use o111af emojis is making most in to zombies with the same silly expression without any subtlety!

11 11111111111111111111111111111se

Deluge of Devotion

Come Ashadhi Ekadashi, and follows a deluge of devotion in its wake. Unlike other festivals, with this religious fest, there is not any possibility of the splurging of the monies, which we seem to love to distraction, if the Ambani wedding saga is any proof.

See, with Dasara and Diwali, there are thousands of things to buy. Rangpanchami and Holi need new white dresses! Why, even during the Ganapati festival, we tend to buy ornaments for the Lord.

There is no such splurging possible when it comes to Ashadhi Ekadashi. Vithoba is the lord of the down and out. For him, a basil leaf offered with love is more than enough. He is happy even if the devotee bows down to the pennant atop a temple. Why, with Ashadhi Ekadashi, begins the "chaturmas" which is dedicated to very many renunciations!

How to compensate the desire for splurging? You would hence see every blog, each status, each t.v.channel in Maharashtra bursting at the seams, overflowing on and on and on with pics of the Lord, with songs and abhanga's, not to forget the bhajans blaring on the loud-speakers, almost noisiest, and fast. 

In other words, even this date with devotion, too, is a victim of tokenism, driven by the market forces. Marriages are now absolutely commodified, given the Ambani wedding whose various stages lasted almost six months. The only solace about the extravaganza was that it WAS tasteful, almost beautiful, and not gaudy. Moreover, as the Shankaracharya pointed out specifically, despite inviting firang's, neither liqueur nor non-veg was served. In a way, it was a kind of Indian soft power extravaganza. Let us discuss this point some other time.

In brief, hereafter, irrespective of whether the bride or the groom belong to the lower income group, whether either comes from the mofussil or the urban area, weddings are hence going to be celebrated big and long in India.  See how the 'pre-wedding shooting' fad has spread like wild fire!

 Tokenism of the "day card" variety it is, in other words. It is going to be blow big as per the dictates of the market. Nice hence to know that at least one festival would get celebrated simply.

 Pratima@Deluges are delusional!

In the beginning

 The first impression, they say,  is the last impression. Well, as for me, I do no think so. First impressions, well, do not they mostly relate to mere looks which are, except for babies, mostly made-up these days? In fact, so much is the warpaint that often a complete room, at least a wall or two could comfortably be painted with it.

Well, the only exception to my impression that the first look hardly matters would be novels. In a novel, the very first sentence is focally important. It sets the very tone of the novel. It often gives away the theme, too.

"All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", is how "Anna Karenina" begins. The very first sentence tells you that the novel is about family as an institution and its pathologies. Indeed, that is what the novel deals with. Very many unhappy families, mind you, not mere marriages, we meet in the novel.  The novel begins with Anna's brother's family problems, and ends with the total annihilation of Anna's.

Remember the beginning of Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities"? "It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times" is the first sentence in the novel. This parallelism in the first sentence continues for almost a page length paragraph. Thus, right in the beginning, we are introduced to the convulsive era of the French revolution and its thoughtless excesses that, in a way, merely exchanged the victimiser/victim roles, while rampant victimisation in a new mode continued unabated. The first sentence captures this turmoil brilliantly.

Who could ever forget the first sentence of "Pride and Prejudice" which teaches you most effectively the problems first impressions create. The very first sentence tells you that on this earth, marriages are not made in heavens. Rather the matches are patched up along monetary terms and conditions. The novel opens up the class-based snobbery. It deals with knowing the self and others beyond both, the class and the first impressions which often are absolutely deceptive. No wonder, the novel depicts one of the liveliest love stories in the whole world.

Well, I can go on and on discussing the first impression of a novel as captured in the first sentence of a novel. There are very many superb examples. Our blog though has to, both,  begin, and most importantly, end efficiently. Hope it makes you curl up with a novel as it is a holiday tomorrow, and the weather prediction is that it would rain hugely!

Pratima@ For novels, the pithiest description would be, " in the beginning is the end." 

Tittle-tattle tales

 Is it necessary to tell tittle-tattle tales, to gossip? Well, I have always thought of it as being absolutely beneath me. I try my level best never to indulge in such time-consuming, and more than that, mind-corrupting activities. They are fruitless, and take away your focus, is what I feel.

Well, I have been brought up the same way. My mother never joined neighbouring aunties "chit-chatting" for hours on end. Actually, my parents faced terrible difficulties in the first few years of their marriage due to tremendous injustice by the immediate family. Never ever did I hear either of my parents speak a single bad word against such hard harshness. May be, hence I find gossiping plain boring.

As a result, at times, one is absolutely unaware of happenings and incidences around. Let me give you an example or two. During my Ph.D. years, I was asked to conduct a few lectures on Vocabulary Formation by a prominent "math" with its own institute of language learning. 

Accordingly, I used to go there for teaching vocabulary once a week. In the university hostel, at that time, a  Kashmiri Muslim guy with all possible bad habits and worse friends, it seems, impregnated a girl from Tamilnadu. She was a polio patient, needed clutches. At times, one helped her climb up steps out of sheer empathy. That is all. 

I was absolutely unaware of all such developments. Well, I was busy with the huge Ph.D. studies, and learning German in the morning and Spanish in the evening. Twenty-four hours seemed as if vanishing like a wisp, and I adored that feel.

Well, once before my teaching was to begin, I was asked about 'happenings in your hostel'. Most honestly, I said , "all is well". So I was asked about the incident directly. I was amazed because I genuinely  did not know a word. "Do you stay in the same hostel?", I was asked cattily. 

Well, the problem with not gossiping is that you are absolutely unaware of the politicking around by the mafia gangs, eh, yup, "groups" on campuses which overflow with them. Neither party considers you their insider. So you lose on plum appointments. Similarly, suppose, your Ph.D. theme and your genuine, sincere hard work is "shared", you never know till it is very late! 

Personally, I feel such damages can always be overcome. One is resilient enough. But it is disgusting to listen to sick talk that sucks! What is the use of your degrees, your reading of heaps of literature and criticism if your mentality is no different from the notorious "washerman" from the Ramayana or from women fighting over tap water?

As a result, even when newspaper headlines holler about something that happened in the institute where you teach, you do not know even the ABCD of that entire affair. Well, you go there, you teach, you visit the library, you take up student-related activities, perform them real well, and you are home!

Well, it may appear 'naive' to many! Better to be that way. Anyways, such incidents are always 'managed' by powers that be. In the incident above about the Muslim guy impregnating the polio-stricken girl, there was a lot of feminist 'theater' (in all possible senses of the term) which I witnessed from real close 'angles' once i knew the context. Well, very soon all was quiet on that front, and gangs moved on to find out new victims! Sad and sick!

Pratima@ Well, better to lead life in such a way that you can happily sell the family parrot to the worst town gossip!

Just a few jokes

 Life these days is rather dull, what with the  annual unpredictability of the monsoon, right? So better to add a few jokes to our blog now and then, right? So here are three.

1) When is a person alive yet dead?

 When he/she loses either the range or the mobile itself.

2) A couple is fighting:

Wife: How foolish I was to read your status every day! Sheer waste of time!

Husband: How ridiculous of me to check  your d.p. every day, and find it beautiful!  How blind I was then!

They block each other.

After a few hours, he unblocks her account to check on her d.p. The latest message on her account has his photo. The explanation below reads: "If you find him, send him fast to the lunatic asylum."

Tagging her message along, the enraged husband responds: "Hello, everyone. This is her psychiatrist! I AM reaching the lunatic asylum ASAP to complete her therapy sessions!"

3) The last PJ today! 

Wife: On the family WhatsApp group, you never respond to MY people.

Husband: Very unfair! Why, I always send the heart emoji to each message by YOUR mother-in-law.

Life without the mobile is dull. With it, it can be notoriously ludicrous! Well, a PJ or two can lessen the wrinkles both on the face and the soul! 

To me this mattered more

 July 13. Despite the Mumbai rain alerts, THE wedding of the century, literally a glitzy gala, as thousands of reports, pics, bits, reels et al showering on the media (not merely social, mind you) proved abundantly, took place as a grand show. Well, the reels would continue flooding the social media for a week at least, though the press and the AV media are now one byte bit short for sure.

The debate about the exhibition, according to critics, of wealth in a country where half the citizens go to bed, half-fed, et al, would continue, too, critiquing an event where Bollywood to cricketing stars, Swami's to PM's (our very own  as well as the former British), politicians of various hues, all were in attendance in full regalia. 

But natural hence that in this razzle-dazzle, most would have missed a brilliant bit of news in my opinion. It deals with Rahul Dravid, the highly talented, unassuming "wall" who stands tall for his excellence both on and off the playground.

After the World Cup win, he was offered more mollah as the chief coach which he most politely declined. Instead, he suggested that the prize money be distributed equally amongst all the coaches, a feat he had managed earlier during his tenure as the coach of the under-eighteen World Cup winning team as well. Abundantly has he proved both on and off the ground that cricket is indeed a gentleman's game.

Such grace, fairness, sense of justice and demand for equal share are quite rare in the wor(l)ds today where there is the dirtiest politics around and the ugliest  craze for credits for minor most bits of achievements. 

Well, in utmost humility, I would like to assert that my parents brought us up along these lines, and, however quixotic it may appear to many, we siblings try to follow this road not much taken. No wonder, to me mattered more this much missed bit of news rather any big (mouthed) talk or the (tom-tommed) bravado of band-baja-baraat!

Pratima@Genuine deeds are like distant stars. Their simple but warm shine illumines all the ugly and terrorising darknesses around.

Renunciation is thy name!

 All the Marathi saints in the Bhakti movement are great. Yet my personal favourite is Sant Dnyaneshwar. He was a great philosopher, a superb thinker, a yogi par excellence. In my opinion, however, he is one of the greatest poets ever writing. I do think he is, moreover, one of the most effective communicators.

I admire him immensely as a social thinker who truly revived not only the Marathi language, but the society then. By re-writing the Geeta in to Marathi (ज्ञानेश्वरी, and even अमृतानुभव, not to forget his अभंग), he thus made knowlege accessible to all, and thus revolutionized the social structure forever.

 More than anything else, he was a great human being. Want proof? Even Lord Krishna talks of "khal nirdaln" (खल निर्दलन) and "vinashay ch dushkrutam" (विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्). That is to say, the Lord wants destruction of the wicked and the bad. Sant Dnyaneshwar, known as the fond and beloved mother, the "mauli" (माउली), feels that the best solution is that the worst shed their wickedness. (जे खळांची व्यंकटी सांडो!)

All such great achievements he managed while his daily lived life was sheer torture. He was harassed like hell, and by people who were like a mound of gravel  in  comparison with him as the Himalaya. Yet there is no bitterness in him. Despite his youth, he is maturity itself.  He is not assertive openly like Sant Tukaram who says "नाठाळाचे माथी हाणू काठी" (hit the harmful with a huge stick).

In my opinion, his strength and generosity undoubtedly come from his own great learning and scholarship, obviously from his committed parents. Yet the real 'influencer' is his "guru", and his elder brother, Niwruttinath.

Actually, all the four siblings are unique in their own ways. Yet Niwruttinath, not much known to the common man, is a great yogi. He belongs to the Shakt "navnath panth". He thus led an extremely disciplined and ascetic life. Yet his real contribution is his care and love for his hapless brilliant siblings, especially Dnyandeva. 

This deep affection is apparent at the time of the "smjiwn smadhi"(संजीवन समाधी) by Dnyandeva. The young Nivrutti, who mothered his brilliant brother, nurtured him in many ways, is sheer intense grief. The Sant Namdeo abhang describing the psychological commotion of Nivruttinath at the time of the "samadhi" always, without fail, brings tears to my eyes.

Renunciation was the middle name of Nivruttinath. Yet he was deeply humane and selfless. During the current Wari days hence, my humble tribute to this elder brother who was the protective tree that allowed the tendrils of the creepers, his siblings' life-n-work, to transcend the very horizon, the upper limit spatially, the sky!

Pratima@ Nivruttinath's abhang's  are few but they prove that rich intense brevity is the soul of wisdom!

One too many

 On the BMCC Road, right next to the GIPE entrance, there is an electronic board. The digits on this board are forever moving, literally non-stop. Do you know what this board indicates? The population! Literally growing by the split second!

Indeed the population growth is a huge problem, at least in India. Obviously the rampant population explosion is a drain on the resources. To give an example, if education upto the secondary level is to be made compulsory, however many schools are opened, how would the system balance the ever abundant number of possible students?

With the population explosion, there is yet another huge problem. Apparently, we have the demographic dividend. That is to say, there is a huge chunk of the population who are young, that is, below thirty-five. 

Yet the percentage of the elderly is huge, too. Remarkable it is that these days practically every household has at least one person nearing ninety. The majority of this group belonged to the non-government or the agrarian sector during their productive years. Now in their old age, they do not have a financial safety net, especially when they need money, given the physical deterioration.

If this age group of the population is non-productive, the young are not in a better position either. Majority of the youngsters are not well-trained. As it is most of them, given the very many distractions,  never ever study seriously. Conceptually they are absolutely weak. They lack practical knowledge, moreover, and soft skills, too. Unique problems they have.

Given these realities, which are almost the same the world over, especially in the developing countries, the importance of the World Population Day!

Related to the ratio of child birth is yet another huge problem, that is, the health of the mother. In the pre-natal stage, most mothers-to-be often are anemic which affects the foetus' health. During the lactating stage, many mothers suffer from neonatal depression which mostly goes completely ignored. If such is the mother's physical and psychological health, how would she properly care for the baby? Hence the need for a huge campaign for maternal health which would help the child, and her own health during the early months of motherhood, and later even during her old age.

Pratima@Both these issues  ARE getting attention, but it needs to grow in size, scope and focus, both quantity- and quality- wise!

An empress in-deed

 Let us begin with the title of our blog. Have you noticed that I have chosen the word 'empress', and not a 'queen'. Why so ? There are two reasons. The first one is that these days the term 'queen' is used rather loosely. A diva with a successful album or two becomes a music queen. A starlet with a roaring success of a film, even when manipulated and full of sleaze, can be a movie queen, for instance. Given the 'fifteen seconds' of fame-n-glory model dominant now, queens are crowned and dethroned daily.  

The 'empress' sure carries echoes of the concept called 'empire', an absolute no-no in the post-colonial context. Well, empires need hard work to build, including even those made by cruel Chengiz Khan's or the colonisers or the dictators. A sensitive and just ruler can weed out such negative connotations. On the contrary, a queen is just born or made by marriage. Hence 'empress' is a slightly better term.

Why 'in-deed'? It means 'indeed', that is, truly. Much more than that it means ' in-deed', that is through deeds, activities, actions, which are just, sincere, honest. A queen, if the extant ones are any proof, is more a decorative piece, unlike an empress.

In my opinion then, who is an 'empress in-deed' is that your question? Well, let me quote a few examples. I feel, Ahilyabai Holkar or Zashichi Rani can be an 'empress in-deed'. Neither was born to power. That is to say, they came from non-royal families. Once they were destined to be the rulers, they changed the very prototype. Every which way, they were better than male rulers, and yet they never rescinded on their womanly 'roles' or duties.

In contemporary times, who can be an 'empress in-deed'? Let me begin with rather well-known examples. Women scientists who made the Chandrayan-III or the Indian brand of the anti-Covid vaccine are 'empresses in-deed' in my opinion even when they never got the 'World Cup' kind of celebratory reception.

In other words, an 'empress in-deed' is a woman excellent at her chosen field, is true to her ideals, principles, goals despite conscious harassment and 'leg-pulling' of all varieties. She is open to criticism, yet knows how to deal with conscious viciousness without losing one's own grace and dignity. Neither does she belittle another women out of competition of all sorts, nor does she demean men in a superficially feminist way. And, yes, she is a nurturing presence par excellence . SHE is an 'empress in-deed', even without any throne!

Pratima@ She triumphed against everything consciously crafted to destroy her.

Doomsdictions

 Does the title of our blog confuse you? Well, it is my concoction. It is a symbiosis of "doom's day" and "predictions". It is a kind of "blend" to use a term from semantics.  It means future prognosis that suggests a terror-causing scenario.

Well, "doomsdictions" are a regular feature of climate discussions. Tuesday, for instance, began with the Pune District Collector's edict making rounds on the wapp groups of all the educational institutions. Pune and the surrounding areas were to experience terrible thunderstorms and horrible rainfall. 

All sorts of, orange to red, danger indicators, alias 'alerts', were making rounds of the social media.Well, as things turned out, there was not a single raindrop. Of course, by the evening, there was a heavy downpour of memes and mocks.

Actually, weather predictions is no laughing matter. Such are the huge 'space-ial' parameters, with complex movements of winds, hurricanes, cloud patterns and oceanic current movements that weather predictions can never be hundred per cent accurate.

To this web of uncertainties is now added a universal dimension. Yes, as if to prove Monsieur Nostradamus right, there are constant rumours of asteroids, the size of a mountain, colliding with the earth. June 27 was one such 'end of the world' date.

Yes, it was maintained that this collision would be a replica of the millennia old collision which destroyed the dinosaurs. Well, the fateful 'date' was missed. Yet the 'doomsdictions' did not die! Newer dates emerge every day, quoting Nasa, moreover! Yet again so vast are the parameters that the very possibility of predictions, enclosed within nebulous mystery, is a wonder. 

Hence the extended space stay of Sunita Williams is no mocking matter. The only prayer is that it should end happily like the famous "successful failure" that finally brought back all the astronauts. 

Astronomy is not astrology, the most favourite arena of the "doomsdictions"- mongers, who inhabit the newspaper columns and t.v. screens, not to mention the e-space.  Saturn, Jupiter, and others, eons away from the earth, are supposed to influence our fate! Actually, most often than not, it is the kinda much too much close 'frenemies' who are up to some crazy fun which causes all such lifelong headaches!

Yet neither astronomy nor astrology, when studied in depth, would always go wrong. Beyond the horizons are such vast wondrous possibilities that exploring them is itself a fascination!

Pratima@ Paulo Coelho argues that when you wish somthing from the innermost soul, the very universe conspires to fulfil it! Why worry then over the "doomsdictions"?

Forgiveness

 Forgiveness is the fact; rest all is fiction. Thus would I ideally like to summarise life. Why such philosophising? Is that your question? Well, July 7 happens to be the World Forgiveness Day, and our blog today would deal with this theme, forgiveness.

Yes, forgiving is a great virtue. Why? First and foremost, it proves that you do not take yourself too very seriously. The moment "I, me, my" becomes your obsession, your perspective itself is lost. Every minor matter then becomes an ego issue. Most often, in such a case, there is a danger of persecution complex, of imagining that every minor to major event is a plot against you personally. 

Well, most of the times, in real life, ninety-eight per cent people you meet do not even think of you even when you are very much present there, right in front of their eyes. That much self-obsessed the majority is. So they would not think even once of your feelings or your future. Their time pass matters, and the utmost.

 "Use-n-throw" is their mantra. If you are not useful to such, they would forget your very existence even when they pretended to treat you like the apple of their eyes a day before. Why waste your positivity on such? In other words, by forgiving such scum, you are forgetting all the dirt that can otherwise sully you and your own clean conscience, not to forget your peace of mind.

Sure, forgiveness teaches you humility, too. You realise that three fingers at least turn to your own self when you point a finger at others blaming them! You learn, moreover, to forgive yourself, too, for a minor trespass or two against your own principles. If, for example, you have decided that no cuss word would ever pass your lips, but you do so in a moment of blazing anger, you do not torment your conscience. Rather you learn to forgive yourself, too.

Oh, yes, forgiving is indeed important because other innocent people, too, have,  historically there is ample evidence, suffered atrocities. I always tell myself that it is indeed important to remember that the Holocaust survivors, always my ideals, are the most resilient, resurgent like the phoenix.

Does forgiving mean that anything goes? Well, I believe most sincerely that there is a justness in this wide wild world. There is a balance, too. I am a mere spec in that scheme. Yet the entire rhythm IS upset even when an atom in the design is disturbed, disrupted. In other words, harm, hurt an innocent person for small or big gains. The very pattern of whatever is good, perfect, ideal will listen to the just prayer of that chastity. 

And, yes, still more firmly I believe that there are crimes which must not be forgiven even by the Gods if they exist at all. As a human being, one obviously cannot forgive such mean viciousness-es. The best way is clean forget such wickedness-es as they and their doers are anyways beyond repair! Forgiveness is indeed the fact; the rest IS fiction, and hence what cannot be forgiven must just be forgotten!

Pratima@Forgiveness is divine, forgetting is beatific!

Unique Celebration

 The number 'three' has a great significance in the religious iconography. For Christianity, for example, there is the divine Trinity. In the very way of life in Hinduism, which includes religious practices, philosophy, thinking patterns, 'three' indeed is hugely important.

In this blog today, let us look at the Puri temple, absolutely unique every which way. It has three deities worshipped in one temple. Much more interesting is the fact that it is the only temple in the whole world which is dedicated to siblings!

Across the world, you can find any number of temples dedicated to relationships such as mother-child, the divine consorts, the divine lovers, and so on. The Jagannath Temple in Puri is the ONLY temple in the whole world which celebrates the sibling relationship. 

It is a temple of Lord Krishna and his siblings, Balram and Subhadra. The Rath Yatra in Puri begins today, that is, on the Ashadha Shudh Tritiya. I find the Puri deity absolutely anthropomorphic. 

Let me list a few details which make me believe so. Remember the legend about how the idols of the divine siblings are made? They are wood crafted which in my opinion is a way of nature consecration. Originally, the idols were to be carved by Vishwakarma. When the mysterious process of idol making worried the Queen, she made the King force-open  the doors which remained shut as per the craftsman's conditions, and which resulted in the idols not getting the final finesse of  the ideal idols.

In a way, the story shows the queen's motherly anxiety. Hence the yatra even today has her abode as the goal. On the other hand,  the closing of the doors shows a tribute to the sincere genuine concentration necessary for the blooming of imagination creatively.

The divine siblings in Puri show all the naughty traits of childhood. They play in water, they fall ill, they feel feverish, they want to  go meet grandparents, they want a vacation, too. Such humanisation is the plinth of the  consecration of the trinity's togetherness. Hence the title of the blog today which consecrates the human(e) in the divine!

Pratima@Where there is tender togetherness, there the Lord resides, too! 

N B.: Oh, yes, I would like to acknowledge the discussion during the online Vari celebration conducted by the BMCC.

 

Lyrical Memories

 "Ashadhdya pratham diwase", the first day of Ashadh, the fourth month of the Indian lunar calendar, and forgetting Kalidasa's "Meghdoot", how is it even possible? The "megham", the cloud, may now not be exactly "ashlishta sanum", that is, brimful with the drizzle, what with the changing monsoon patterns of our environmentally challenged world. Yet the lyric memory of the "Meghdut" is forever.

Kalidasa's intense artistry, simply superb both content and style wise, is absolutely immortal. Not many may remember it now. Yet it is forever, even in the ChatGPT  "answers ready even before questions" era!

I wish I could pose "prompts" such as "Provide an example of the subtle similarities between Kalidasa and Shakespeare" to Literature Ph.D. aspirants. In today's MCQ method of gauging/judging acumen, not many would know either Act IV of Kalidasa's " Vikrmowarshiya" or Act V, Scene I of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". 

Believe me, both the masters, Kalidasa and Shakespeare, eons apart from each other, space or time wise, are so similar in the depiction of the loss of love that they prove the maxim, "geniuses think alike". Why, both use intensely lyrical floral imagery, too, to portray the feel.

Another such intense image that sears and yet soothes my soul around this time is the beautiful mini "palakhi" Aai used to craft for us. Simple, exact replica of the original, and beautifully designed/decorated, this palakhi of our childhood is indeed an intensely lyrical memory, forever alive.  No wonder, says Oscar Wilde, " Memory is (dreamy) diary that all of us always carry with us".

Pratima@ Memories, precious selfies captured with the mind's eye!

To form or not to (re)form a habit? That is the question!

 Everyone says these days that no one reads any longer. Yet book exhibitions boast of huge profits as sales soar sky high. Why such a contradiction? Well, very few read literary texts or serious stuff. The serials seem to have so vitiated the taste of the audience that melodrama, larger than life, is the heady mix now. So bookers may come and bookers may go, but books readers seem to prefer are the DIY types.

The favourite most DIY types are books about how to form a habit. Well, forget books, the YouTube world abounds with videos about habit formation.

Habits, it may seem, are tough to leave. My contention is that habits are tough to form. Why? How so? A concrete example may help. Suppose someone wants to leave drinking tea. Typically the argument is one cannot leave the bad habit.

Actually, in my opinion, the person concerned is not forming a new habit, that is, the habit of either drinking something else or drinking less tea, may be. What I am trying to say is that breaking a bad habit is actually forming a new habit. We are, in brief, re-forming (means both 'reform' and 're-form') habits.

No, it is not a mere word play. Actually, it is an attitudinal shift. Instead of a negative view of 'reforming' something negative, here is an attempt at positively looking at behaviour as doing it all over again, but a new way.

I suppose such an approach works because nobody likes criticism, no one likes being told that (s)he is wrong. Instead, asserting the possibility of person beginning a-new, assauges the ego, more showy and more fragile these days than any crystal chandelier.

Well, 're-forming' a habit requires twenty-one days, they say. I am.not so sure of the magic figure. May be, if we were to remember the Pavlov experiments, in fact, the entire behavioural theory, we know that habit formation requires not merely repetition the nth time, but basically  the reward motiv.

Be it the lever pushing mice or the salivating dog Skinner and associates discuss, any new habit requires a prize to the 'subject' forming it. This stick-n-carrot approach is useful both for animals, and their masters! 

I would not know! I think such a stimulus-response is boring repetition. Instead a creative, a positive challenge would be the right way. Try it. Then (re)forming  would never be a question!

Pratima@ Positivity is the route to re-form!

A spectacle or two

 Our country is very much a nation that loves a spectacle or two. This yen for gala events courses through our very blood stream. The big fat Indian wedding is a much quoted and world renowned example of this quirk of ours. In our blog today, let us look at two such events that took place in the last couple of days. Let us use these two events to understand ourselves more, and better.

The first one is the grand welcome accorded to the Indian cricket team. What a spectacle indeed! Such huge crowds, all drunk with the zingy taste of the much missed success. Nothing mattered, neither the near misses so far, nor the much debated catch near the boundary, nor the booing of some of these very players a few weeks ago during the IPL season. Talk indeed of the fickle public memory! All is well that ends well!!

What does this gala event tell us about ourselves? To begin with, thus we get to know that cricket is a 'fevicol ka jod' for the whole of India. The thorny identity politics does not rear its poisonous head when it comes to this game that seems to turn the spectators also in to gentlemen. Why? Well, there was this huge rally, full of over drive as far as fandom goes, and yet there was not a single mishap. Tells a lot about the subtle sense of discipline inherent to us, city-slickers.

Unfortunately, the other event we are going to talk about, the Hathras incident, seems to question this very notion of discipline. The stampede there killed at least hundred of innocent, unfortunate victims. Who is responsible for the tragedy? The organisers? The state machinery? In my opinion, it is the devotees. 

The devotees! How do they create a deity out of a nobody? Why are they so desparate? May be, that kind of blind faith comes from economic hardships. Such, such are the zillion difficulties they must face, including the constant draining of self respect, that they fall at the feet of anybody who seems to promise the much needed succour. 

Even in the Wari procession, except for the dindi's directly connected with the well-known organisers, the others are a motley crowd without any sense of discipline or self-respect. Sad is the sight when someone, out of pretensions of religious fervour and largesse, chooses to distribute some eats. Really ugly scenes ensue. 

Well, what is the moral of the story? Difficult to decipher, right? Rural distress is my submission!

Pratima@ Tough to ascertain the crowd mentality as it is full to brim of many an uncertainty!

Happy Birthday, America!

 Does the title confuse you? Well, July 4 is the day America ascertained formally its status as an independent country. After a long struggle to wriggle out of the harsh hold of the colonial mindset of the British Isles, July 4 was the day when was born that idea called America. It has a truly unique structure as a concept. Let us see if we can unravel it in a brief way, and thus wish America many more happier 're-turns' of its unique Americanness.

America was initially the settlement of /by Puritans who had to migrate from their motherland, England, to escape the intolerant ill-treatment during the reign of Charles II. In other words, America is essentially a land of immigrants, though not always of those persecuted back home.   

The Puritan forefathers wanted to build a new h(e)aven, a beacon like a temple atop a boulder, a huge rock. In other words, in its very inception, there is a sense of a new beginning. These early settlers were extremely hard working, and literally created a new Eden on the foreign soil. Their rich produce sent back to homeland attracted other adventurers from all over Europe. 

In other words, since its inception, America has celebrated hard work, the rags to riches dream, the log cabin to the White House story. When fortune seekers from all over Europe started flocking to America, the need to explore the Wild West and the sunny south was inevitable. 

Thus began and flourished the idea of America as the land of dreams, of the adventurer spirit exploring the new, the unknown. Sure, in the process were massacred brutally the original tribes. None cared then! Now emerge murmurs of reparation so that their unique culture and  language survive. 

In a way, we can hence maintain that America as a concept is both inclusive (as a land, right from the beginning of emigrants/immigrants) and equally exclusionary as is proven by the fate of the original tribes, and much worse, of the African slaves bought for all the back-breaking hard work.

Even today, America appears to be both, a combo, a federal republic of many and quite disparate states,  a collage wherein different identities create a new mix, and a chaos, wherein too many ingredients cancelling each other, are always on the boil. Even today hence the contrast between the industrialized North and the agrarian South, the conflict between the White and the 'others' continue, causing discordant notes. 

After the World War II, and during the Cold War era, America ossified its superpower status. Not only the Vietnam body bags kind of questioning of the status quo, but also the changed world realities which are essentially multi-polar now would not any longer accept the American big boss attitude. 

The arrogance hence of the Boston Brahmins who talked to each other, or to the Lord, has melted democratically to greet the Latinos the"hola" way and bid "ciao" to Italians by accepting that they alone are not the Mafia!

In brief, the United States, quite a peg down its grandiose self-image, despite the 'silicon valley' and 'coke-n-Mcdy ' empires, may not exactly totter like the possible presidential candidate of a certain party, and hence deserves our toast on July 4! 

Pratima@ "To be free," opined Nelson Mandela, "is to respect and enhance others' freedom, others' independence"!

Medium and message

 The very title may remind you of Marshall McLuhan who famously initiated the Medium-Message discussion through his well-known axiom , "medium is the message". What he was discussing was the fact that the message gets impacted by the medium chosen to convey it.  

Let me give you a very simple example to corroborate the McLuhan principle. A radio debate would not be the same as the t.v. debate, right? Nearer home, while conveying our happiness about a new arrival in the family, the way we would speak about the happy news would be different from the way we would write about it, right?

Our blog today is not really in to such high-funda stuff.  While writing this blog, I just remembered how connects happen due to media. I am going to narrate two anecdotes to prove my assertion.

For the New Indian Express, I once wrote an article on that disappearing tribe, the family doctor. In my personal opinion, the family doctor is an institution that must survive despite the era of super-specialities. Well, many minor to major ailments are psycho-somatic, and a kind, understanding chat by the family doctor is often half the treatment.

Given such enthusiasm on my part, my article waxed eloquent about a GP (a Maharashtrian)  in the locality. My article was read by his long-lost relative, who extremely happy to thus know the whereabouts, came all the way to Seetafalmandi, and they met  literally after ages, as the huge Hyderabadi distances had literally alienated them for decades. Next I met the good ole doctor on the way, he thanked me profusely. See, medium (newspaper feature) was the message!

Yet another example. Yet again with a doctor. Aai's homeopath during her very happy stay with Sanju and family in the Woodland Colony was very friendly with Aai. Medha Tai used to like Aai as Aai never ever carped the typical mother-in-law way. She reads my blog entries regularly, and the connect continues even when Aai is sadly not there any more. The same way was re-established my connect with Vaiju Mavashi who, too, misses Aai, but never ever my blog posts.

Media-ted messages may create a lot of sound and fury, not signifying much, when it comes to the public arena. Media can, however, make relationships in the personal space!

Pratima@ A HUGE "Thank You" to the regular readers of my blog. Many amongst you, dear (former-)colleagues and my dear forever students, my bankers/tax consultant, you all never miss a single post. Thanks a ton!

As for Seema, Pannu, Prasad, My Dear Bro, Raju, and our very own daughter-in-law, Ashwini, (and often her Aai) when you never ever fail to give a dekko to my blog, the physical distance does vanish, right? See, medium makes the message!

A unique day

 July 1 it is! Already half of 2024 is over! How time literally flies, and at the supersonic speed. Time,  it is literally gushing away like a river in spate, swallowing everything in its ferocious flow. 

Indeed hence is July 1 unique. The day/date is special for yet another reason. It is a day dedicated to doctors, chartered accountants, and farmers. If a doctor audits the body, a C.A. examines the heart of financial matters. Both, in other words, are central to our personal and social well-being.

Oh, yes, both are  already sharing tough competition from the AI. Medicine is already telemedicine. The Google guru has already made most all patients masters of diagnosis. When the AI starts advising patients online, surgeons alone would have any business. Rest is prompt!

The C.A's, too, share this predicament, and in a much more worse way, I suppose. A bot would very soon master all the intricacies of the tax and related legal/financial matters, what with the huge LML models. The matters are so routine, and require minimal human interaction/interference, unlike the medical field, in a way. 

Both these professions may be on their way out. The farming business will never ever be! 3-D printing of food is not possible as yet! Even if it gets thought of in the future, such food would be synthetic, and cannot help us, and ours. Hence, even when we thank the farmer and his  thankless job, we must eat up our technological pride, right? Thus would July 1 be truly unique!

Pratima@Natural is indeed the real!

Wari: Wonders and Woes: A few Musings and Misgivings

 The annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur, a wonder known as  'wari', reached Pune this evening. As is my wont, every year, I follow the footsteps of the warkari's for a little distance. Literally a sea of ochre undulating on waves of devotion seems to flood the streets.

Sorry to have to mention this. Yet it has to be said. This small, little walk (that I take out of my deep respect for the wondrous concept called "wari" wherein, uninvited, lakhs and lakhs of people, the real common man, walk, wonder of wonders, a distance of some two hundred and fifty odd kilometers out of dedicated devotion) depresses me every year.

Let me explain why. Well, actually  it is my dream to one day complete the wari from  Alandi to Pandharpur. Unless I get to join the I/T employees' 'dindi' or I can be a part of the officially designated 'dindi' of the Alandi 'devsthan', this dream of mine will not be realised.

The only reason is that there is undescribable mismanagement. There is total chaos. People are pushing and shoving and falling over each other. This year, a dindi ran along, screaming the way young people do after winning a match. Well, the wari is devotion, not demonstration of over enthusiasm.

Yes, the police do try, and true, it is difficult to control such a huge surge. Yet there has to emerge a pattern if the original purpose and purport of the wari are to remain intact. Let me give you a concrete example. Except for the officially designated dindi's, other warkari's belong to the  extremely poor citizenry. In fact, there are people who cynically maintain that most such foot soldiers follow the path to escape hunger and want at least for a month.

Is it then right to distribute food items, biscuit packets, rajgira sweets and bananas to show off? This time, a truck full of devotees were catching/dropping the food packets thrown at them! It was amusement for many!  Well, the poor, not so lucky as to board a truck, literally attack the donor in a frenzy, and ugly scenes ensue!

Many old warkari's slip over the sticky banana peels (not to mention the slippery puddles) strewn everywhere. Instead why not give such gifts to the 'winekari' of each 'dindi' who can distribute the goodies to each person? Otherwise, the city largess gets reduced to a cruel mockery of the rural poor!

Cannot there be better time management? Like the  Ganesh immersion procession, the palakhi procession, too, is getting delayed more and more year by year. Forget anything else, do not the tired devotees deserve some rest on time?

In brief, the discipline observed at the time of the "ringan" must be followed at every stage/step. Oh, yes, the poor horse! Everybody touches anywhere that hyper sensitive animal! Ah, yes, can not there be a designated number of people on board the palkhi chariot, solid heavy in itself, and, moreover, stuffed to capacity, and overflowing, with the "mankari"s? One really pities the bullocks harnessed to the chariot!

Sure, many dindi's do sing abhang to the beat of the castanets and the 'mridung', perform folk forms such as the human pyramid, the different types of 'fugadi' and 'zimma', the traditional games. Yet such scenes are rare, are mere exceptions, are not the rule as they actually should be. The real rituals matter the most, right?

If such woes, growing gruesome by the year, are not nipped right away, the real meaning of the 'wari' would be lessened, and a devotional ritual would get reduced to a huge procession without much prayerful precision!

Pratima@ A pilgrimage is a 'way' (in all senses of the term) to connect with the divine while being part of a community. The distance to be covered is a mode of enriching the devotee both physically and psychologically, right?