The Marathi Day

 February 27. The World Marathi Day. We all celebrated it. School children, of course, had the field day. If they had teachers and head masters who are creative and are ready to work (quite hard) with them, the young ones came up with quite spirited performances.

As for adults, we were a little misty eyed. We shared videos that celebrated the Maharashtra Geet. We reminisced a little bit. We shared jokes. Great! But what next? 

Sure, Marathi is now accepted as a classical language which is great, too. But what next? Have you realised that ever since Marathi was nominated as a classical language, there has been constant and huge talk about the dialects. Yes, dialects, sociolects, idiolects and all such varieties matter. 

Yet what is equally important is the fact that the standard language is not sacrificed to the identity wars. Actually, even within a dialect, there are multiple varieties. Language changes literally every twelve miles. Undoubtedly,  all these varieties have to be enriched, have to be cared for. But not at the cost of the standard language, and, that, too, just to spite a certain identity.

Otherwise, impossible practical difficulties would emerge. A language needs vibrancy that emerges out of contemporary relevance. Suppose, to make Marathi highly relevant, it is decided to use it for commerce and science enterprises. Obviously, these efforts would be possible only if we respect the standard usage of the language. 

Can we have banking or share market deliberations in very many local dialects? Can we discuss all the aspects of various scientific analyses in very many dialects sociolects, idiolects? Right now the UGC is translating text books, et al, in the various mother tongues of India. The very purpose of such an enterprise would be defeated if there is an undue insistence on local dialects. What then would be any relevance or use of the classical status?

The classical status cannot be merely for idolizing the past. It has to have a present as well as future reference point. Hence the need to avoid jingoism about dialects and sociolects, and so on. Otherwise, empty rhetoric can fuel, as it always does, empty tokenism and meaningless societal skirmishes, however smart the garb might be regarding the use of the local variety! Hope, on the Marathi Day, we will pledge to overcome such empty egoism.

Pratima@ It is very fashionable these days to dismiss grammar and celebrate communication. Actually such convenient binaries themselves are promulgated by vested interests who are basically more in to just furthering their own welfare, and at the cost of the academic discipline, the societal structure, for instance. Time to know the wolves hiding in the unsheared wool of the sheep!

Celebrating Mahashivratri

 Mahashivratri this year marks the formal end of the Mahakumbh. It is but natural hence that it is sheer celebration. As it is, as per the Vaidic as well as Pauranic traditions, Shiva is all, the beginning, the middle, the end. He is the creator and he is the destroyer. He is everywhere, he is all powerful, and he knows everything. 

He is purity itself. He can give up everything, and yet he enjoys everything. He is an ascetic, and yet he, the Natraj, is the inspiration, the muse of all the artists. No wonder, each time the whole world is in trouble, he, the balanced fulcrum of existence, rushes to the rescue. 

He can hold the forceful flow of the Ganges. He can drink up the poison. He undertakes all the impossible feats for the betterment and upliftment of all the downtrodden. He can be friends with the serpent as his neckpiece, the mighty Nandi  is his trusted vehicle. Why, his 'barati's' are the ghosts, et al, that is, the reject of the rejects!

It is a happy coincidence this year that the Mahashivratri this year coincides with the death anniversary of Veer Sawarkar. He, too, accepted all the dross for sake of the liberation not of his own self, but for the meaningful existence of the entire nation, our free, independent India.

Be it the divine Shiva principle or the beneficent Savarkar sacrifice, both are worth  a deep bow and utmost celebration which is actually a deep reverent prayer. Long live our devoted dedication to both!

Pratima@ I read a very interesting interpretation which said that the Shiv-Parvati story would be the world's first love marriage. She, a princess of a mighty kingdom, married an ascetic out of sheer, pure love, right? So this rather creative interpretation.

Brutality

 Have you watched the film "Chaawaa"? Well, I have not as yet. Yet, after all as a Maharashtrian, one knows of the extreme brutality meted out to Sambhaji Maharaj. His resistance to that unbelievable cruelty is the folklore one grows up with. The respect one feels for him, the honour his memory awakens in every human(e) heart are rooted in that resistance.

Sure, the very thought of that brutality is enough to send shivers down the spine. Yet it was at least visible because it was physical. Much worse is the psychological brutality. The wounds are invisible. The scars never heal though.  

Why is brutality meted out in the first place? The psychology of the person who is brutal is indeed worth a study. Is it pent up anger due to years of conscious ill-treatment? Often that could be a valid reason. Like the proverbial cat that is pushed to corner! In such a scenario, the current victim is actually the long time victimiser.

In a case like Aurangzeb's, his brutality is a pressure tactic to break the victim at any cost. Well, unfortunately for him, he forgets the principle that what you cannot break breaks you in the final analysis. The horrendous brutality he meted out to Sambhaji Maharaj  created thousands of Sambhaji's which finally doomed his destiny.

Martyrdom never goes waste. Those who are watching it from the sides perfectly very well know the reality. If it has not already brutalised them, too, their total sympathies are with the victim. In a way, the underdog is finally the winner!

Pratima@ I never watch creepy shows like the "Big Boss" because in my opinion such stupidity normalises viciousness, cruelty, brutality. Indirectly but surely, it would instill in the spectators the psychology that it is okay to be nasty, to crush to pulp (much worse, because unlike that horrendous 'game' (!!!!!) called boxing, in this case, it is not physical brutality) someone just because you are mean enough to hate 'just like that'! 

Any wonder that currently in the psycho-social arena rules the gladiator mentality which gloated when a ferocious lion tore to pieces its unfortunate victim, or vice versa!?! Those who love to watch the raging bull charge at the matador ARE irredeemably brutal! The darkness such spectacles create has no silver ring/lining!

Pre-meditated Contempt

 Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet is one of the most interesting characters in the whole of the world (of) literature. Why is she so very special? Is she a raging beauty? Luckily she herself does not suffer from any such silly vanity. Does she belong to a wealthy family? Well, to quote her own response, she is a "gentleman's daughter", and hence equal to anyone, lesser than none

Indeed what exactly is her appeal? She is always herself, comfortable in her own skin, however much others may choose to despise, to hate, to belittle her.  She never allows the social status, position, wealth, bitter jealousies and viciousness-es of anyone else to define her own worth. More than that, she can comfortably show them the mirror, without getting agitated herself.

In the early stages of the plot, what in technical terms, as per the Gustave Freytag model, would be known as the 'rising action', there is a very interesting scene. There is a dance party. Elizabeth perfectly very well guesses that the Darcy-n-Bingley Sisters kind of  'elites' are, behind their perfumed hankies, laughing at the crude provincial life, and basically want to belittle the local. Sure, as yet, she does not know, neither guesses, Darcy's interest in her.

She grandly, nay, royally rejects his proposal to dance with her. In that context, she comes up with this term that makes the title of our blog today. Sure she is wrong there. Prescient, however, is her intellectual and emotional quotient.

Indeed in this small little life span of ours, we do meet any number of pompous fools, wicked, nay, even malignant creeps of all sorts and varieties who have such "premeditated contempt" coursing, nay, bursting in their thickened (with self-important prejudices) veins and arteries. Absolutely necessary it is to know them for what they are. Still more important it is to let them know that you know them, and their premeditated contempt!

Pratima@ It is important to respect others. Equally important it is that they (learn to) respect you. Still more important is the fact that no amount of anybody's 'premeditated contempt' disturbs your equanimity nor withers your self-respect!

Pilgrimages/Pilgrims

 With the Maha Kumbh, metaphorically as well as literally afloat since January 13 to the Mahashivratri, that is February 26, the ambience in India has been full of the talk (-n-walk, given the heavy traffic in and around Prayagraj) of pilgrimages.

Given the numbers released by the U.P. government, it looks as if half of India has partaken of the 'punya' involved in a three-time dip in the confluence at the Sangam Nose near Prayagraj. The Mahakumbh is especially a great pilgrimage this year as it would next recur after one hundred and forty four years, that is, after six generarions as a generational change happens roughly after twenty-five years, the mean age of either or of most parents.

The U.P. indeed appears to have risen to the occasion as pilgrims who have actually been there report. For sure, huge financial transactions, too, form the base of this event. Undoubtedly though, basically a h(e)aven for the pious religious-minded, in brief!

What makes one a true pilgrim though? Someone who powers through a huge humongous crowd, being literally pushed and pulled by the crowd strength at Prayagraj? Or better a he/she, especially committed to his/her duties, both personal and professional?

Let me give you an example or two. Who would get more punya? Can you tell me? A gentle soul who tries her level best to lovingly take care of the elderly in the family, making every minute count in the short span accessible to them? A committed scholar who tries to her current BEST to excel in every professional duty, be it teaching or be it a submission, creative as well  critical? She did not go to the Kumbh.

Or is it somebody who did go to Prayagraj, splurging quite a bit of money, a person in love with the 'i, me, my' way of life? Somebody who is good at hurting, humiliating, harming everybody else? Who disrespects (wo)men, all the while quoting feminism in a shallow way? Who, for instance, consciously  cooks for the prasad either the non-veg and/or a not-so-liked  vegetable? Someone who most subtly but absolutely surely ill-treats others? 

Well, my answer to this non-existent dilemma is to quote Sant Rohidas who insisted, "मन चंगा तो कठौती में गंगा"! A good, pure, genuine, gentle, kind heart is the real pilgrimage! Why otherwise a pilgrimage that would make the Ganga itself impure, right?

Pratima@ Shravan Bal's pilgrimage in the "Ramayana" was the most meaningful. Bhakt Pundalik's pure penance made the Divinity accessible to all, and forever!

In Memoriam

 Marathi Bhakti tradition is indeed a rich resource. Sant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Ramdas, Sant Eknath, all of them are exceptional scholars, great philosophers, superb thinkers, great activists, and wonderful poets. Of these three, Sant Ramdas might not be equally well-known. Undoubtedly, he might not be as famous as Sant Namdeo or Sant Tukaram. 

Actually, most probably apocryphally, like Sant Tukaram, he, too, is supposed to be the spiritual 'guru' of Shivaji Maharaj. The 'gurudom' of both of them has been so much made in to a controversy that it is better not to enter that territory where 'ignorant armies clash by night', to quote Mathew Arnold's brilliant image.

He was a great devotee of Lord Ram and of Lord Hanuman. He established in Maharashtra many temples of Maruti/Hanuman. Thus he tried to inject strength in an enervated society. One can thus go on and on about his religious contribution, the philosophical stance behind it, and so on. Well, much has already been written about these issues.

As for me, l like him a lot for two reasons. For one thing, he leads the common man from the practical to the philosophical.  Better still, I admire him as a superb poet. What a range he has! He writes brilliant chain verse superbly. Honestly, nobody can beat him at anadiplosis. He is a superb master of this rhetorical ornament.

His verse makes tremendous and effective use of the music of words. The rhythm of his words is such that he need not use the names of the drum like beat, or, for that matter, any, musical instrument because his words, his structuring of syllables, the poetic forms he uses, all together create that effect so well that one thinks one can easily set it to music! No wonder, most of the much sung "aarti-es" of most gods are by him. 

Most sensitively he captures a dejected mind, down and out, in doldrums. His meditative and edifying verse attains a unique sensitivity that can comfortably compete with any psychiatrist. In other words, he is absolutely contemporary.

Well, one of my ardent aspirations is to translate the great works of Sant Dnyaneshwar and Sant Ramdas and a few Marathi women Bhakti poets in to English. Hope I manage it soon, and well! In the meanwhile, this celebratory memoir on the occasion of Ramdas Navami, the death anniversary of Sant Ramdas!

Pratima@Aai attended the training sessions at Sajjangad, dedicated to Sant Ramdas. Later, she was a teacher/evaluator for a training course based on his writings. 

She studied in depth the Bhagwad Geeta, Dnyaneshwari and Tukaram Gatha. She scored exceedingly well, was a rank-holder, in the state/national level examinations conducted by Geeta Dharm Mandal.

 I used to set up the pooja set up, the whole works, when she read the Upanishads and Vedas with a few other devotees.

Well, the star dust rubs on!

Speaking to the heart

 Nelson Mandela has this great quote to his credit. "When you speak to someone in a foreign language, it goes to his head," argues Mandela. He states further, "when you speak to someone in his mother tongue, you speak to his heart." Our title, a take-off on this interesting quote, is a tribute which celebrates the World Mother Tongue Day.

Celebrated every February 21, this year happens to be the silver jubilee year of this international ritual. The U.N. declared the day as the World Mother Tongue Day to commemorate the martyrdom of the academic fraternity in the then East Pakistan of 1952 when the legitimate demand for Bengali and the rejection of the imposition of Urdu took a violent and tragic turn.

Actually, when a language dies, with it dies a culture, a way of being and becoming. Given the centuries old colonial and the expansionist ambitions of the White Man, many native languages are already facing such a  danger, which means that it is no longer the question of existence, but of extinction for many languages. Hence the relevance of the day the world over.  Long live the world mother tongue day!

Pratima@Celebrated the famous day in the German classroom. Was very happy when in the evening, the P.M. quoted the day in his speech on the occasion of the Inauguration of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, the annual literary conclave. Felt validated for my attempts for the continuation of the day in the college.

Equality, justice, fairness

 Remember the French Revolution? The motto of that earth shaking movement which changed the world forever was equality, liberty and fraternity. The multiple, that is, of very many types and of (m)any in number events across centuries have proved that these goals remain as distant as a mirage in a dry desert.

The UNGA, that is, United Nations General Assembly, hence decided in November, 2007 that a day should be earmarked  that celebrates world wide the notion of social justice. February 20 is the day thus singled out. 

Which are the priorities that underlie this day? These are removal of poverty to begin with.  It questions exclusions of all sorts. The two main manifestations of  such exclusions are class and gender inequality for instance. Included in it are human rights. It is thus that a net of social protection is created for the disadvantaged down and out of all sorts.

In my opinion, these ideas, forever open to debate and discussion, are constantly in a flux. Hence set patterns  of one solution suits all varieties should not be applied while analysing these. Look at the MAGA supporters' demands for measures to mitigate their woes, for instance. They want a curb on the legal/illegal migrations. This demand is not merely financial. It relates to the cultural complexion of any given nation as well.  Look at the plight of Europe currently to understand this issue.

In brief,  such are the griefs of our complicated existences that such a day is indeed necessary to call them out. Hope finding solutions to the issues involved happens fast, and fairly!

Pratima@All should always be equal in every which way, and none never becomes more equal as George Orwell would say. In this caution lies genuinely the real  equality, fairness and justice!

 

The wise, philosopher king

 The late 1960's! The notorious Cold War since the late fifties had spilled in to the U.S.-Vietnam strife. The mighty America was defeated decisively by the tiny Vietnam. When asked how, the President of Vietnam said that they could win at all because they followed Shivaji Maharaj's guérilla techniques. 

That is the great Shivaji Maharaj for you. A great warrior who invented the guerrilla warfare, a strategy that helped the meagre Maratha army stand up to the mighty Moghuls. But he was not merely that.

In my opinion, he was a great philosopher king. His was a soulful vision basically. His was an ideal thought. His was a practical idea. No wonder, his concepts continue to illumine history for centuries. An example or two may suffice.

No, no, let us forget the populist stories about the daughter-in-law of the Kalyan Subhedar. Sure that legend, too, proves his wisdom as a king. Let us look deeper though. Those were the days when the economy was agrarian. Shivaji Maharaj arrived at a very rational distribution of the produce, forty per cent for the kingdom and sixty for the farmer. 

Next, he devised wonderful ways of water conservation as the dry and rough terrain of the mountainous Maharashtra was easily prone to dry spells of droughts. He provided seeds to farmers in need, for instance. As a result, the common man, either a farmer or a farmhand, realised that here was a king who unlike the marauding lords, treated the farm holding tenants kindly and with consideration.

In brief, he was a philosopher king because such were his thoughtful humane ways as a ruler that he could generate faith and belief in a polity that was for generations cruelly oppressed and ill-treated. No wonder, he could create followers whose faith in him as a good king, as a generous leader was so implicit and total that nothing could shake it.

It could even be argued that he was a philosopher king because he was mature enough to give in when the circumstances were impossible. An example could be his agreement before going to Delhi. That did not mean, however, that he compromised with his principles or his honour in any way. But he was wise enough to lie low or to keep quiet so that he can bide his time, and win in the final analysis with honour intact, and minimal losses. 

Given such a balanced vision, he could transform a principality in to a rock solid kingdom that for generations saved (for sure, the southern, though actually the whole of) India from the Mughals. His treatment of the British and the Portuguese was equally wise. 

One can go on and on praising his foresight, his balanced vision, his integrity as an individual and as a ruler. Instead, let us state it in brief by asserting that he was one of the best examples of this concept called the philosopher king !

Pratima@ In 2030, we would be celebrating his four hundredth birth anniversary. May be, by that time, despite and along with the ASI rules, if his great forts are re-built and beautified as tributes to him, it would truly be history re-lived. For sure, by that time, at least projects such as "Shiv Shrushti" would emerge as live demos of his vision as a great wise philosopher king!

Crazy Creepy Capers

 What all they show on the social media! Especially creepy and dangerous are the so-called fun reels. Do not you believe me? Okay, let us discuss three such crazy capers and their creepy consequences.

The first one shows a happy family! The nattily dressed and dolled up wifey is busy scrolling the screen. Hubby Dearest is dutifully pressing her feet. Their small son hurries in screaming, "Grandma is coming! Grandma is coming." Wifey hides the mobile, kicks the husband supine, and with a pious mask starts pressing the feet of the man of the house, with a smirk plastered on her mug. The MIL (as she is known on the social media) walks in with a thali, a plateful of eats, convinced of her bahu's goodness, while her ladla beta simpers cutely. What is the impressionable kid being told? Lie, cheat, defeat/deceive even the immediate family! What a message to grow up with!

The second one shows two twenty-five year old friends discussing their expectations about a groom. Next they turn fifty, next they are on their death beds. Yet their expectations are still not satiated. Sure, in most (arranged) marriages, what matters is not compatibility, but physical and financial attributes, which is a shame. Yet this creepy reel denies women any choice at all by mercilessly mocking it!

The third one is weirder still. In a trendy restaurant, three youngsters, two girls and a guy are polishing off a huge, and clearly pricey, treat. One girl starts wiping the right corner of her mouth with a tissue paper. The guy gets up, and starts cleaning the other side of her mouth with a delicate feathery finger touch. Suddenly glares the other girl, supposedly his 'girl friend' as they say it. A friend is a friend, right? How can it be boy or girl? Anyways, she leaves in a huff, he follows suit. Outside the restaurant, the duo meet, wink, clap, laugh their heads off because the fat bill is now, due to their 'smart trick', to be paid by the unsuspecting friend. What is the 'fun' message? Cheat but eat!

Such reels get crores of views and lakhs of likes apparently. They go viral, are forwarded countlessly. What does this process say about our society and the so-called content creators it crafts! Hardly imaginative is such imaginary, right? Less said, the better!

Pratima@ No wonder, India has got latent! What sick influencers!! And how creepy their cheap audience!!!

The young these days!

 There is always a lot of heavy duty talk about India's demographic dividend. Eternally everybody is going gaga over the higher percentage of the young amongst India's citizenry. 

Actually, almost as a corollary, there is a rising curve as far as the growth in the percentage of the older citizens goes. Hardly it is noticed. The old these days matter merely for mockery. The traditional respect accorded to age has withered away. 

In its place is there a crooked jeer as if people in their thirties and forties are not much much aged than those in their teens who are much older than those in their childhood. If such is the public space, one wonders what horrors (must) happen to the eighty plus practically every household has these days!!!

Do you really want to know the so-called young these days? Visit any college campus. They all are eighteen plus, that is, legally adult, right? Should know their responsibilities, right? Well, never do they mind being the classroom comets. (Of course, very very few teachers mind it either! Good to have a student or two.  Under that pretext, you can conduct a lecture for five minutes, if at all you bother to conduct any lectures at all. How the rest of the lecture time gets spent is anybody's guess! The question papers in any, mid-sem or semester-final, exam are autonomously, and even otherwise, an open secret!) They can lie through their teeth to explain their very many absences. They do not mind forging parents' signatures either.

Never can they understand simple instructions, whether orally (they are always mentally absent) or in writing (they never read notice boards nor wapp messages either). They apparently are so busy that writing a few sentences, given a fortnight, as an assignment is tough for them. Anyways, when would they actually write anything? ChatGPT and/or its versions are aplenty!

They have neither a thorough knowledge of the basics nor are they aware of the latest developments in any field. Somehow pass the exam, manage to get a degree by mugging up the night before and by submitting the chapGpt-ed assignments, they excel at these skills.

Vulgarest is their language full of ugliest cusswords, often referring to a mother/a sister. Crudest is their behaviour, lacking in any hint of sophistication, better forget grace (under pressure). Under the garb of skill development of varied sorts, literally everything goes, nay, gallops, as studies, and do they love it!

About the AI and the inevitable loss of jobs, they prefer an ostrich mentality. So long as they can yak and drape trendily, who cares!  Unfortunately, given the information instruments, such vulgarities (of the Beer Biceps' various and very many avtaars) proliferate everywhere and anywhere (dancing away, eating endlessly, jimming-n-jamming jazzily!). Visit any 'educational' fare, actually fair,  on the college campus, stalls would mostly be of food types! Who cares for food for thought!

Pratima@ SURE there ARE exceptions who, of course, prove the general rule thus! 

At times, I indeed wonder at their parents. Do not they ask their wards about what is happening in their lives? May be, the so-called young (actually absolutely wor(l)d weary!!!) must be lying there as well. Actually, any parent, like any sensitive lecturer, can guess if something is amiss. Hence the curious lack! 

Smiling sadly

 Why this title? Well, for the last two days, our blog dealt with the deadliest "c" word. So how about defeating it? The best way to go about it is through laughter, right? Believe me, jokes about cancer is big stuff. Well, those who suffer a lot know how to have the last laugh, and the loudest at that!

1) Cancer specialists  are----?

    Lymphoma-niacs!

2) The favourite films of cancer patients are?

     Getting Anand! 

     Finding Chemo!

3) A rhyme a cancer patient is good at?

     All this chemo

     Makes me emo!

4) The greatest worry of a cancer patient is?

     Scanxiety!

5) One cancer patient to the other:

     The bad news is that chemo can kill you          before cancer does, and the good news is        that medical bills and health insurance             can kill you before chemo does!

Pratima@Believe me, not only in reel life, but in real life, too, there ARE Anand's galore!

Cruellest Cancer

 As I wrote in the blog yesterday, I tried to write in quite some detail about health issues in my newspaper articles. Though I did try many other themes, literally there used to be an  article per day, this was one of my major topics. An example may suffice. In those days, the legal sanction to using morpheme for cancer patients in the fifth stage, though  under strict medical supervision mostly in hospices given the terminal condition of the patient, was a breakthrough.

A power couple in the medical field of Hyderabad, that is to say, both the wife and the husband were Heads of relevant medical departments in a major hospital, often gave me such leads. Once I had to meet the lady regarding one such article. I was waiting in the OPD for the appointment.

It was there that I first came face to face with the cruellest cancer in the whole world. Yes, the most difficult to bear cancer is the pediatric cancer, that is, the cancer a child suffers. Mostly, it is leukemia or retinoblastoma. There was this couple from somewhere in interior Andhra, and their hardly six months old baby was a case of retinoblastoma, that is, eye related cancer.

It is one of the most painful memories that even today, nearly two decades later, sears my soul. The baby was constantly whimpering. Imagine the pain to which there is not a word. Literally. His young parents, obviously from a not so very well to do family, lost to the chilling contexts of a multi-speciality hospital in a metro city, silently suffered the agony, their son's and their own. The living portrait of pain it was.

Later on, for 'Newstime' of the Eenadu group, I wrote two articles on pediatric cancer, and thus got to meet kids who after a chemo session played cheerfully not knowing exactly what was happening to them or were overjoyed because their ardent wish for something as trivial as a tricycle was fulfilled.

All these brutal brushes with destinies far far crueller than in any Thomas Hardy novel taught me how much pain pulsates in daily lived lives, and yet how many smiles sweetly bloom innocently!

Pratima@ I have written this piece because February 15 is the International Day of Cancer in Children. Yes, often our sweetest smiles are those that hide the saddest suffering. Shelley sure would forgive me the changes I made to his great quote.

Re-search

 The very early years of the twenty-first century those were. I was a research scholar who wanted to be socially responsible and relevant as well. The only way out would be freelancing with newspapers, and which I tried in a big way, and rather successfully. I could get in to a bigwig enterprise like the New Indian Express, and that, too, with the sheer force, eh, power of my pen, and this feat was quite a high. 

One of the regular features, mostly every Thursday, i wrote, dealt with medicine. In my opinion, the social and the societal responsibility of  medicine, especially given the strides in medical technology, is huge. I wrote all sorts of much appreciated articles that dealt with cancer, mental health, and so on. I tried my level best to make them women-oriented.

Well, it was thus that a famous hospital approached on their own to the Desk Editor, of course, via the RE, that is, the Resident Editor, because they wanted a write-up on what they considered their speciality in the Hyderabad of those days, namely, in-vitro fertilisation.

As was usual, the assignment came to me. As was equally usual, I looked up as much as I could through the reference books in the British Council library. Well, I must confess that in the 1990's, two of my favourite most alternative reads, were the world map  (given Raju's Merchant Navy itineraries) and Gray's "Anatomy". It was tough, but fascinating. May be, it was my concession at the psychological level, to Aai's wishes that I should be a doctor. In a way, later, 2008 onwards, it did help me somehow while taking care of her as a fast ageing mother.

Well, when I was to meet the doctor concerned in the hospital, I knew the basic rudiments of in-vitro fertilisation. I WAS impressed with the Frankenstein possibilities of the god-like abilities of man-made birth. Well, in my opinion, 'birth' is actually nature's ultimate wonder.

What I did not realise in my initial enthusiasm was soon to meet me in person, and that meeting showed me the truly Frankenstein side of the IVF. The chief of the hospital asked me to meet one of their patients. She was my age, very beautiful and angrily vocal, and belonged to a rather prominent family.

I still remember her pain when she talked of the total lack of privacy, how encroached upon she felt as the personal most details were getting clinically dissected, how all this disturbed the equation between the couple, and all such emotional turmoil.

In the last paragraph of the article, I did mention this alternative, quite dark, side of the IVF, of course, without revealing her identity. The hospital in-charge was rather miffed because she wanted a merely congratulatory adulation. In a quite feminist high tone, I justified the last paragraph to the RE and the DE, asserting the rights of a patient, especially as a woman. 

Well, all this emotional turbulence came back to me because I have just completed reading "Vital Signs" by Robin Cook (my favourite most medical thriller writer) which deals with the IVF, and what it may do to a woman's body and psyche, not to forget the big business involved. What a deja-vu indeed!

Pratima@ Our daily blog comes this late because I had to leave very early for college. In the afternoon, there was an online seminar. So! Sorry though, my regular readers! Forgive me the delay. Hope you feel the intensity reading the blog as much as I did writing it.

Love is...

 On a WhatsApp group, read a weird ad. "Your last chance," it said. No, no, it was not for some eat. It was for a "snan in the Kumbh". The procedure for this on(c)e-in-a-lifetime 'chance' was indeed unique. You were supposed to send your pic, and, of course, five hundred rupees. The advertiser would take three dips in the Ganges with your pic in the hand, and, voilà, the whole punya would get transferred to you!

Advertisements, it is eternally said, seduce and swindle. For the love of monies that would fatten the pockets of the advertiser,  they promise anything and everything. Look at the Valentine week, for instance. What is it basically? Merely a splurging spree! After a few weeks, the twin velvety red hearts would gather dust, right? Why a costly rose bouquet that would wither the next day? Why not a plant whose daily care would remind him/her of you? Why, the joyful memory of you that he/she would feel when each bud blooms would be truly priceless, both for him/her and you, right?

But, no! The love of 'being with the Joneses' , of 'appearing' to follow the 'done'  ritual matters more than the real, the genuine feel. And, yes, this superficiality which basically destroys your soul reigns supreme everywhere, in each field.  Let us 'unfollow' this unhealthy, competitive artificiality. Instead, let us love the creative, the genuine, the real, the authentic!

Pratima@ Love is not an irritated and irritating waste of resources. Rather love consists of bringing out the best in us and in  others, let us forever remember this reality, right?

Wither(ed is) the world?

 Indeed wither the world? In which direction? Is the world as we know it withering away? Mind you, this is not a rhetorical question with an implicit metaphor.  The cartography of the world as we have known it, may be, since the days of Megalon and Columbus, is sure, and fast, changing!

No, it is not the Trump effect. The only superpower involved here is nature, the geological processes and the not much understood thermodynamics of the way the land mass and seas are formed.

Let me give you a few examples to substantiate my statements. Iraq is literally getting sucked in to the earth. Near the African shores, there is every likelihood that the landmass would be divided, and new continents, different shores, new ports would emerge, while a few would be submerged.

Look at what is happening in Greece. There are thousands of earthquakes, some literally high on the richter scale. The tectonic plates are shifting in a big way. A similar situation is afoot in Japan as well as in the Latin American countries.

Luckily,  in India, no such natural phenomena are bursting open literally the land beneath our feet. However, the Himalayas are the most earthquake prone as the tectonic plate underneath is very young, and, as befitting the young, extremely mobile. So like Heraclitus' great quote on the river, the Mount Everest you climb the second time is not the same either.

Is this the end of the world? May be, the soothsayers of the Baba Venga types, and not to forget ardent devotees quoting all sorts of chapters from the holy texts may thus fearmonger that the Apocalypse is here.

Well, in every difficulty lies an opportunity. That sleek aphorism may apply here as well. Possibly thus could we understand what really is the crux of the earth which, too, is mobile apparently. Great times for geologists, archaeologists and oceanographers. Fingers firmly crossed, right?

Pratima@ With technology such as the high flying drones can one get to see the eruption of a volcano or two, a sight which is both terrific annd terrifying. Incidentally, these days, volcanoes, too, are quite active across the Indonesian ridge, yet again geologically most active.  Forget ye not the usual cosmic suspects such as comets and asteroids missing the earth by a fraction of a milimeter! Wither(ed is) the world indeed!?!

Labour Issues

 Labour, if N. Subramnyam, the L&T big boss is to be believed, is these days a huge issue. Is it due to the AI strides, the theme of the Paris Convention? Is the AI a threat or an opportunity? While the bigwigs debate it on an international platform, local labour issues seem to be vastly different.

No, it is not the ideological issues. Post LPG, apparently, the Labour Movement seem to be in a lull. There might be alternative "or else" kind of pressure tactics. These are more of the power games, often with the underworld connects, and mostly without any ideological basis.

No, the long hours is not the gripe either. So much intense is the debate/discussion about work/life balance that one would have thought that the ideal dream Marx paints towards the end of the "Manifesto" is already a reality! Well, Marx is so much out of fashion currently that such, such could not be the issue.

Why then the huge attrition ratio? That query deserves a "let us debate" tag. Apparently the reason appears ro be the reluctance to relocation. Given the DBT, that is, direct to beneficiary, transfer, the not any longer poor labour refuses to move out of the local comfort zone. Hence there would be a huge attrition if a company from Maharashtra would like to spread its tentacles in to nearby states.

As for the techies, it may not the DBT schemes. It is the "work from home" convenience that has imbued in the very DNA in the post COVID contexts. If online work is the white collar issue, the blue collar ones pose different difficulties. Being a capitalist is indeed tough now!

Pratima@Unique are the issues of each century!

Why handcuff?

 Ever since he took the reins of the U.S. in his hands, Mr. Trump is absolutely in action mode. He seems to follow to the t all the promises he made while campaigning for the second term of his presidency.

No wonder, to India (were) returned illegal immigrants. The moment the plane carrying them touched the tarmac, began a  controversy here in India. A sizable group of politicians from the Opposition Parties created a huge hue and cry over the fact that these Indian citizens were handcuffed.

To handcuff or not to handcuff the illegal immigrants was never a question for the Trump administration. Their very entry in the U.S. was illegal. The humanitarian concerns that worried the Opposition Parties hereabouts could just not bother the American administration.

Personally though, I honestly cannot undestand the need to enter a foreign country illegally.  Apparently, these characters would have paid the middlemen literally crores of rupees. That very amount could have been the seed amount for any MSME kind of activity in India. 

Now they would feel truly lost. Re-entry in to the U.S. is now impossible. They have been defrauded of the meagre family fortune here in India. Forget the cruel mockery by the kith and kin, what now can be the plank on/by which to survive? How would they earn their livelihood now here in India? In brief, they would forever be chained to those handcuffs!

Pratima@When even for the legal entrants, there loom large the impossibilities of getting a green card, the dreamt about American citizenship,et al, why the illegal entry? Such a self goal adds insult to injury!

Arthur Miller,one of the greatest American playwrights, had as early as 1957 explored the tragic human(e) cost involved in illegal immigration. Though the community he explored was Italian ( with a scandalous reputation for all sorts of hanky-panky), his play, "The View from the Bridge" explores most sensitively the prices paid by all the concerned. It sure sensitises us to the tragedies currently unfolding everywhere the illegal immigrants (are) return(ed), handcuffed and chained!

Outsourcing Troubles

 Have you read Elie Wiesel's moving story entitled "The Watch"? It tells the travails of a Jewish boy, indeed of the entire Jewish community, of the unfortunate Jews post Kristallnacht, and on the way to the notorious concentration camps. My translation of this story for a Marathi magazine was liked a lot.

Have you heard of the "Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenistsyn? Literally THE Ur-text of pain, humiliation, degradation it is. I am indeed elated that my translation of a few chapters from it for a journal dedicated to translation was much appreciated.

Why all these details? Well, I read about an offer by the president of El Salvador, Señor Nayib Bukele! He has offered the U.S. an outsourcing possibility. It consists of the U.S. sending its prison inmates to the mega prison in El Salvadore entitled CECOT, that is, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo which is Spanish for the Center of confinement of terrorism.

Señor Bukele's crazy logic is that the fee charged would be peanuts for the U.S. while the amount would be a 'cost effective solution to its over-crowded system'. I would not know, as I am not either on X or insta,  what Anand Mahindra would have to say to this bizarre offer, but it is the pits as far as I am concerned.

It apparently looks as if America, given its excessive (and, by definition, criminalised) illegal immigrants in the wake of Mr. Trump's MAGA move(ment)s, could share the burden for a fee. How inhumane is the proposal which seems to trade in human beings! Earlier it was for slaves; now for purported convicts ( who could be illegal immigrants some of whom were merely foolishly chasing the American dream the wrong way)!

Where, to which demonic stupidities, has the globalisation  rhetoric led the twenty-first century world?!? In the liberalised economy unleashed thus, anything can be Pvt Ltd! Anything for the sake of monies! Terrorism IS bad, and an internationally synchronised effort is indeed necessary to curb that criminality. That does not, however, mean that mankind commits itself to such horrors either. 

Such a practice would indeed be a pathetic and pathological continuation of the terrorist tricks, and state-sponsored at that! Does dimwit Bukele realise what such a proposal would do to the already much fraught North-South debate! Hope neither Mr.Trump nor Mr. Musk would listen to this senseless suggestion, which is mean viciousness and cruelty personified!

Pratima@He who sells what is not his, must buy it back or go to prison. I do not know the author of this gem. Señor Bukele should realise how much it applies to him, too! 

Rangoli Pictures

 Rangoli Pictures? Do not we say 'rangoli patterns'? Is that your question? Oh, please do not get confused. I am referring to a rangoli exhibition which presented pictures, eh, portaits of Lord Shiva.

Bal Gandharva Ranga Mandir Gallery was the venue of this exhibition. Incidentally, some time back, it was here that two of Sushama's, my brother's, Sanju's, wife's, painting and crafts exhibitions were organised circa Diwali. Quite a number of Pune citizens had lined up for the current 'portraits of Lord Shiva with rangoli as the medium' exhibition.

After getting the mobile blocked, they would allow you inside the gallery hall of Balgandharva theater. Various scenes from the Shiv story, a few not much known, though the majority mostly were the famous and popular ones, were presented in the rangoli exhibition.

A few details could have been checked though. For example, in the depiction of the Kedarnath, it was shown that Bheema was trying to kill the buffalo avataar that Lord Shiva assumed. Actually, Bheema tries to hold the buffalo as it is the avataar Lord Shiva assumes to escape, while the rear part of the animal Bheema manages to hold on to. That is the way the pindi is at Kedarnath. 

As for the material, rangoli, it IS tough to use. One has to first let the background settle, and then draw with a feather touch all the details. Neither a line nor the colour combination can go wrong as the background cannot be disturbed as it cannot be re-drawn repeatedly.

Yet there were many experiments such as the rangoli patterns above water, below water, between water, and the picture reflection pattern, et al. Almost all the pictures were realistic in mode wherein at times the details such as body proportions could have been finer.

Like the depictions of Lord Ganesh, Lord Shiva is yet another divine concept open to abstract depictions which this exhibition by mostly amateur artists did not try. The ambience with a Shiva temple and the constant chanting of the Shiv nam was good. As the organisers were hurrying the crowd, hopefully they would send the promised video to my mobile so that one looks at their art more carefully, and in detail.  As a token of my appreciation of the amateur artists, I donated rupees one hundred and eleven to the cause. An hour well-spent, in brief.

Pratima@Aai was excellent at rangoli patterns. She could draw portraits of the gods as well. During the Diwali festival, our courtyard would look gorgeous with her rangoli patterns and rangoli portraits.  She could draw rangoli patterns on water, too. I can manage simple patterns. Ashwini, my brother's, Parag's, daughter-in-law, is excellent at the art indeed.

It is the time for ...

 It is that time of the year yet again. Oh, yes, it is the time when the whole world chooses to forget the usual culprits such as region, religion, language, caste and class, and so on, and so on, and instead chooses to 'tread' in love! Yes, the Valentine is arriving. The very feel is there!

How to guess it? Well, at every nook and corner are there gift shoppees with velvet red hearts, not to forget the omni-present rose bouquets.  Look at yesterday, for example. Of the Valentine week, it was the initial stage, the rose day, the harbinger. Even on the internet, especially the social media, group after group was busy sending images of roses of all hues; red, of course, being the favourite one. 

Good in a way is such a celebration of the bonhomie. Love sure has to wait it out till THE D-day! The problem, however, is that all such chumminess is extremely superficial and shallow. It is of the " time flies, make the most of now" variety. So low is the threshold of this happy, happy feel that it is like the make-up of a bride these days. For that day, lovely; the next morning, back to brass tracks!

Would such glitz not lead to despair, disappointment, disillusion? Or is it the case that all the "I am good, you are great" shenanigans are a cover up to hide the deep rot down within? 

Difficult to guess or know! I have always suspected, been very wary about the kind of chummy chummy guys-n-gals who eternally gossip about those absent, and much worse, tear to pieces the other, the 'friend,' the moment his/her back is turned. What company indeed, right?

In other words, in the wake of this Valentine feel, often the only true love is that of the Mammon, the god of wealth. Well, a rose that would otherwise cost a tenner sells this week at thirty at least. The trinket shops make a kill, too. This was the way it was last year, and this is the way it would continue to be next year! Nice to know that at least the rose bazzar is happily blooming!

Pratima@Love is not love that alters at the "Altar of Mammon!" Oh, no, it is an ever fixed mark beyond any roses or pizzas!

Unique Indeed!

 "A woman with a voice, " says Melinda Gates, " is a strong woman." Well, I would like to change that quote a little. A woman with the gentlest, sweetest voice is the most powerful woman. Any guesses whom I am thus describing? Yes, it is indeed Lata Mangeshkar. 

On the occasion of her third death anniversary, here is my rather different approach to understand and appreciate the phenomenon that she was. Well, we all know what a great singer she was. Any genre, the classical to the come-hither, the tragic to the devotional, was better illumined by her magical voice.

In my opinion, not only as an artist but also as a woman, she is indeed unique, absolutely special. Allow me to explain how. A chit of a girl she was when she entered the then absolutely male-dominated, patriarchal film world. She changed the rules of the game though. 

Her delicate voice was considered thin in the era of Shamshad Begum, Amirbai Karnataki, Begum Akhtar, and Noor Jehan. She was literally mocked at. But she stayed put. Every song that came her way, she made it her own, and absolutely unique, indeed special. And the rest indeed was history.

When male singers were not ready to put up a fight for a singer's right to be included in the credits, she alone stood up to the whole industry, and, voilà, things indeed changed for the better, even for those singers who opposed her.

She never took insults lying down. Apparently, the mighty Raj Kapoor had promised  her that Hridaynath Mangeshkar would be the music director who would design the music of 'Satyam, Shivam, Sundram'. The deal was through, and she went for a foreign tour. In the meanwhile, Raj Kapoor went back on his word. Lata Mangeshkar, who against his wishes, had convinced her brother to do the film, dropped RAJ KAPOOR like a hot brick, and for many years!

Why, she came to Hyderabad after twenty-five long years, given the ill-treatment meted out to her! As a representative of the Eenadu group, I was lucky enough to cover that tour. I was to get a chance to interview her, but 'humara Abdul' (it was his name, no reference to the social media slur, please!) was literally such a pain in the unmentionable part that she cancelled all the interviews.  For a t.v. spot, he made her get up, sit down umpteen times. She got irritated. It cost lots of us her interview!

Well, in that three hour long programme, this almost seventy-five years old lady sang a huge variety of songs, was on her feet for some three hours, and yet till the end, she was her ultimate best, thoroughly professional, absolutely committed! It is such specialities  (much more some time later) that make her the phenomenon that she was. No wonder, she continues to linger in our memories as an 'artiste non-paraeil'!

Pratima@"There is no limit to what a woman can achieve," asserts Michelle Obama. Indeed, yes, when that lady is a determined and committed artist.

Anecdotes@the 'auto' mode

 Not everyone is as lucky as Saif Ali Khan when it comes to autos in metros. Very early, why it was just past midnight, there was this auto driving past, the auto fellow immediately came to help out, without any fuss whatsoever, did not throw any tantrums despite such a sawari, and was okay even when not paid!

Saif is some lucky guy indeed! What exactly does he do to deserve this fortune, eh? Unlike us mere mortals, he never seems to suffer misfortunes galore in the auto mode! Uncountable are these! To begin with, his wonder of an auto driver did not even once demur even when the distance was zilch!

As for us mere mortal types, a rude " nahi chahiye" ( who wants to be wanted by them, anyways?) is tossed at us as if it is the latest missile. Next, they never know landmark destinations. At every turn, they want guidance from you as if they are your most committed re-search students. 

Well, their mobiles never have the necessary app! No use mentioning it as some tirade about the untold(!) woes of the "wat pahanara" (that is, awaiting), though actually "wat lawanara" (what with funny, nay, crazy speeds of the auto on awful roads, and in the wrong most lane!) auto fellow are sure to unravel.

Why do auto fellows believe that the rear mirror is meant for staring at women unlucky enough to travel in their autos? So fixed is the stare that at every nano second, an accident appears imminent, what with that havoc called Pune traffic!

At times, they are terribly chatty, almost as much as the la-la-'ladies' in kitty parties, and equally shallow. Any pretended attempt on your part to start browsing the ever ready apps on your mobile gets you a disgusted look as if you are the biggest crater on the road! The eternal honking gets vicious at such times.

They never have change, can haggle like hell over a rupee, while they expect 'you' to shell out the change or the extra rounded off figure which they lust after as if it were that of the unfortunate woman passenger! Yet, without fail, they would call her "auntie", preferably though, "grandma!"

Why get in to an auto then? Well, not everyone has a fleet of cars, without drivers, at home, right? Buses are most irregular. Their timings can beat the arrival of the monsoon at unpredictability. So, what can not be cured must be endured! 

As for the two-wheeler, though one can ride it blindfolded like 'Jadugar Raghuvir', the famed Pune magician, the eternal chatter in the lane right next to 'home, sweet home' is such a constant threat that one wants to be safe without any part of the body consciously being broken. So many have been such calibrated encounters of the scary kind (about them some other time) that you believe in the adage, 'in discretion lies is the real valour'!

The Uber, Ola types are so good at ditching at the last moment that roles for the heroines in Bollywood fillums must be authored, as if following their antics. Scary anecdotes of Ola Uber types turning away right at the doorstep are aplenty! In brief, endure what you cannot cure!

Pratima@Undoubtedly, there are honourable exceptions. As usual though, they prove the rule (of the zigzag drive down the dug up tar road!)

Curing Cancer

 The Hindi films of the 1970's, not necessarily Bollywood fillum types, would always have an ace up its sleeve to garner the spectators' sympathy. Either the main character ('Anand', 'Mili') would be suffering the 'c' disease or a very close relative from the immediate family would need the expensive treatment, thereby making the hero compromise.

Times, they have changed. These days, movies are mostly 'entertainment, entertainment, entertainment'. No wonder, silly 'comedies', 1,2, 3, 4, ad infinitum are not tear jerkers, while serious movies deal with different themes.

Currently cancer hence is not much a presence in the reels. In the real world though, it is indeed a villain these days. Types are proliferating, patients are increasing in numbers, treatments are getting costlier by the day, what with corporate hospitals and their insurance deals/contracts!

In India, actually, the medical facilities, both the manpower, that is, specialist doctors, as well as the infrastructure, are truly efficient, absolutely world class in India so much so that medical tourism is a reality. Yet such is the cost of such care that the common man cannot afford it, especially with diseases like cancer. I have not looked up the status quo regarding this issue post-budget. So cannot say it definitively. Basically however, on this world cancer day, it is necessary to reiterate the urgent need to make medicines and treatment customer friendly!

Pratima@Cancer kills, more through the worries over the treatment whose price replicates faster than tampered meters!

An important day

 Life, it moves on, and it must move on. "Charaiweti, charaiweti", 'keep going on', as the Aitareya Upnishad  insists, is the fulcrum of life. To prove this point, let us just look at the phenomenon of water which is everywhere. Why, our body requires it so centrally that we can go on without food for a fortnight, but not even a couple of days without water.

Our terra firma has less land mass, and more water bodies. If stagnant, these would rot and get slimy and sick, like the dead sea in Coleridge's  great poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ". Water that flows is water that is healthy and clean.

Why all these bits and pieces of information? Is that your question? Well, just look around. Have you noticed that the winter solstice is almost over? We are fast progressing towards the summer. The days are getting longer, and, oh, yes, hotter!

Well, Tuesday happens to be Rathsaptami. It marks this change. Aai used to draw the chariot of Lord Sun, oh, yes, properly with the outline of horses; make a small bonfire wherein she would allow rice cooked in ghee and milk in a small pot to overflow. What a lovely celebration of the diurnal cycle! Well, following her footsteps, I would sure make Tilgul; but I love the idea of her "akshaypatra" which is a subtle care-n-concern for the ants, and other such insects, who would now start working hard, and presciently in advance for the winter to follow. Life goes on!

Well, apparently it is the Narmada Parikrama day. This pilgrimage by the banks of the great Narmada, from her origin, the source, till she meets the sea, which is the new beginning of her journey thence,  a life altering experience for the pilgrims, is an assertion of the Aitareya axiom quoted blog initially.

In a way, such spiritual practices are rooted in the agri-rural way of life which is the core even in today's dizzyingly urbanizing and services-oriented realities! Well, life goes on, it must go on, we must walk along, and help direct it the right way!

Pratima@ Tomorrow it is the world Surya Namaskar Day, too, it seems. Yet again a reminder that Nature moves, and so must we, too, and make life better alongside.

Let's Understand Basant Panchami

 'Civilisational identity' of India, nay Bharat, nay Hindustan, is the current buzzword in academics. As for the first alias, that is, 'Bharat', it has financial/economic overtones as in the urban/India-mofussil/Bharat debates, while 'Hindustan' might be a red rag to many a charging bulls, right? Let us not get caught in that raging wildfire, much worse, believe me, than the L.A. ones in the U.S.

Basant Panchami is one of the common most threads weaving together this ancient civilizational identity. Celebrated on the fifth day (as per the 'tithi' adjustments, at times, it could be the 'fourth') of the lunar month of Magh, it is an indication of the imminent arrival of the Vasant/Basant, that is, 'spring'. That is the way it would get celebrated in most of India, right? 

Have you, however, noticed that in the Northern and North-Eastern parts of India, it is celebrated as Saraswati Poojan which in Maharashtra, for example, is on the Dussehra/Dasara Day, while Bengal, for instance, would have it during the 'Durga Pujo', right?

Is not it interesting to note in this context that the river Saraswati (supposedly present incognito at the Triveni Sangam where, too, during the Kumbh Mela, the Basant Panchami is hugely important so much so that the "akhadas" were ready to forego the "Mauni Amavasya snan'', and instead chose the Basant Panchami for the ''Amrit Snan'') begins its terrestrial journey in the mighty Himalayas, especially the North-Eastern part, thence it flows via the Northern states to meet the Ganga and the Yamuna at the Prayag Raj confluence.

Well, rivers are indeed the true source of life. Each civilisation has always emerged on the bank of a river which fulfils every possible human need. Hence in our part of the world, a river is a mother. Incidentally, like the gigantic Bramhputra which is a "nad", German, too, has a masculine term for a river, der Fluss! Let us not discuss such gendering right now.  

May be, given the trajectory of the life-giving Saraswati, the Basant Panchami Utsov is huge in those parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is the initiation of 'vidyarambha', of learning. On this day get inaugurated all the cultural ( as well as other, too)  events. 

Yet another interesting facet of this fact could be that on the banks of this now absent river were grown/grew the mustard seed farms. May be, the plants would flower around this time. The golden, yellow blooms tossing their heads with the heady wind must have been a beautiful sight. Hence the dominance of  yellow in the Basant Panchami Utsov, right? Aamir Khusro's sufi song "sakal ban ful rahin sarason" which describes this glory and its continuation in Sufi practice prove such beauty of the confluence of religion and realities, right?

Pratima@Geography is culture!

N.B.: This blog began in a Wapp conversation with one of my brilliant students who had once blasted the "Bramhinism" underlying the Durga Pujo, but had today posted lovely images of the Basant Panchami celebrations. Sure, there must be more elaborate scholarly discussions of this issue.

Banking antics/bits/beats

 Do you want a 'self control' kind of crash course, and that, too, without any charges? Visit any bank in India. Of either private or government variety makes no difference.

You, too, work, right? You, too, need to be on time there, and can somehow make it to the bank where you have to (now and then, of course, imagine having to go there often, horror of horrors) go for a few important transactions. Well, panting and puffing, you reach a few minutes before their lunch hour is to begin.

The lady cashier snaps at you as if you are a stray with an acute mange. Actually, the Peon Kaka there would have liked to pull the shutter in your face. May be, he would be too lazy to pull it down and pull it up again. The tenth pass 'Mavashi' there continues to strut most self-importantly. If an unfortunate person were to make the mistake of asking her about the people at the counters, her glare is more scorching than the summer sun, while the coldness in her voice can make any glacier blush.

Well, thus are we fortunate enough and get the chance of waiting inside the bank premises for the employees' noisy chat during the lunch to get over. When lots of clientele is awaiting them, they are chummier and hence chattier with each other. At last, they get up, go to the washroom, come out wiping, obviously hands! What were you thinking of?

The cashier yet again glares at you. Just before going for the lunch 'brake', she had a very nice, quite cordial talk with a customer because she entered a huge amount as debit when actually it was credited! Anyways, it is managed with the software and the printed  (re-)entries somehow. Who cares if the customer fumes? Such goof-up's happen!

The venom of that encounter is still brewing in her despite the lunch hour churn of all sorts. She starts snapping at you. You get an arrogant, overbearing and huge lecture about the way numbers should get written. So vehement and long it is that you are convinced that, thank God, a few KG kids were saved such a terror! No wonder, you turn an avid believer on the spot.

Your passbook is to be completed? The printer, or the printing machine, would always be dysfunctional. With the hi-fi software type of banking, a new excuse eternally awaits you, "there is no connection, server down"! 

The officer you had to meet for another important but basic transaction arrives half an hour late. Obviously there is a big clientele awaiting his arrival. Belching, he chooses to ignore you. At last when he simply cannot stand the sight of your mug, tired after a long day and feverish as you are running temperature, he deigns to talk to you. 

He sure is not as bad as the lady, is actually co-operative. How can you blame him for the inordinate amount of time required? Well, the computer, the printer, the 'line' from the central office, the server run slow, and are not there much too many customers? In the meanwhile, time flies at a supersonic speed. You notice you were at the bank some hundred and forty-five minutes.

Go to any government bank. You would face the same indifferent, arrogant, overbearing crudeness. Mind you, like the "sthitpradnya" in the Bhagwad Gita, they treat all customers, moneyed, poor, educated, illiterate equally!

In a private bank, added to this magic potion is yet another ingredient. Everybody in any private bank is forever busy. In addition, they are sleuths, Messers Daya and the CID team, in disguise. So suspiciously they watch your every move (very curtly you are told to remove your mask, incidentally) that very soon you feel afraid that breathing, too, might not be allowed. Always have I hence wondered how all those huge bank frauds take place!!!

Impossible people! Incidentally, they behave well if you can out-smart them with their own tricks. They would be okay only if you are equally outrageously arrogant and mean! No wonder, there was this news item that a Tamilnadu branch of a major bank was found to be a fake, you know why-n-how? Well, the bank employees were actually well-behaved! 

The situation is no better in most offices, government, private, college, or any other. Extreme arrogance, shirking duties as much as possible, absolutely unpleasant body language rage. Exceptions that  prove the rule could exist! Gandhians, I suppose, should super-spread some 'seva bhav'!

Pratima@Forget the fact that, though they behave as if they are the main reason behind the whole show, they should remember that they are paid their hefty salaries just because clients, customers exist! 

Well, commerce colleges should have every semester  special courses in languages, communication strategies and body language as the future careers of their students would always be people sensitive!

 Of course, fingers crossed, here is hoping that if lectures at all happen, the entire course, not just a few impotant points that would autonomously appear in the semester final exam, whether written or MCQ, would actually get taught! 

The Birth of a God

Today is Ganesh Jayanti. It means the great God Ganesha was born today.  I love the anthropomorphism involved in this concept. A god is born, just like us mortals. In my opinion, this concept makes Ganesha more lovable.

Anyways, Ganesha always has such intimate connections with us mortals. In our family, for example, the Ganesh Visarjan happens with the Gauri Visarjan. The idea behind this practice is that Lord Ganesh comes to his Mama's, maternal uncle's, place with his mother, Gauri, gets feted and celebrated with lots of love, and returns home with his mother. Imagine being the 'Mama' of the Lord! I adore my father and brother for that unique identity.

Lord Ganesha thus forms very strong emotional bonds with us, mere mortal human beings. Hence, may be, it is easy to imagine him in (m)any form. All of us can draw the Ganesh idol, however bad our drawing otherwise may be. Even a kid can make a clay idol of Ganesha.

Sant Dnyaneshwar has a lovely description of Lord Ganesha in the beginning of 'Dnyaneshwari'. It is an extended metaphor which provides beautiful analysis of each one of the Lord's unique features by relating them with the entire philosophical thought in our tradition. Indeed worth a read or two! As Sant Dnyaneshwar  would say, he is the beginning and the end of everything. Here is bowing down with ultimate most reverence to the Lord!

Pratima@In my opinion, the birth of god would essentially mean the Vaidic prayer, "tamaso ma...". In other words, this birth takes us from darkness to light, from mortality to immortality, from all the falsehoods to the ultimate truth.