Who is afraid of the AI entering the medical field?

 Bill Gates and Elon Musk and others of their ilk are already predicting that very soon the  AI would take over the medical profession. No, this foretelling has nothing to do with the "minus forty" furore in India, rooted, directly and/or indirectly, in the buying/selling of the PG seats in medical colleges, especially of the private variety. 

M/S Musk/Gates types believe that the speed of the AI (r)evolution is such that it would soon take over the need for doctors, with the robots performing, moreover,  the toughest operations without a single faux-pas! 

Of course, my immediate objection to such a proposal would be the (lack of) human touch. I mean it literally, too. A doctor kindly talking to you, actually touching the aching body part, thereby reassuring you that "all is under control" would be 'out of touch' due to the utmost sophisticated A/I, I believe.

True, in the contemporary era of super specialists, doctors depend more on a battery of tests than actual examination and diagnosis of the "family doctor" variety which  has almost disappeared. Often it looks as if a doctor is responding more to the statistics tests generate than to any actual physical examination. 

My problem with 'the AI as the future medical practitioner' goes a step further n ahead. Already a majority self-medicate-ers, improve their medical awareness, what with the help of the Google Guru and an obliging chemist. 

With the AI, what would happen to such hypochondriacs? That is the real question! The AI would not leave any physiological details to imagination. Equally open would be the interpretation. Thus the territory is fully accessible to the nervous hypochondriac who can imagine himself a patient, nay, the victim of every possible disease! 

Actually, it is the perfect diagnosis and the precise pharmacology that make a good doctor. The AI would simplify these processes every which way. Oh, yes, one can already get detailed google search based articles that diagnose the condition and further suggest possible medication. 

Hence the worry about hypochondriacs who anyway are/get upset when they read such "strictly for educational purpose" articles. I am sure that with the AI arrival in the medical field, the hypochondriacs would imagine, nay, be sure that they have got each and every symptom of most all diseases! Stress, in other words, would be the real killer in the AI regime! 

Pratima@ Who would enslave whom? The AI the doctors or the doctors the AI? That is the quesion! 'AI, heal thyself' is not the probable advice either. Tough times ahead, in brief! 

Quote of the day:                                                         "By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it (or through it!)," opines Eliezer Yudkowsky.

Word of the day: self-aggrandizement                 This term refers to the action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important. The AI may make this process absolutely easy, right? That is  the terrible tragedy!

Let us learn grammar:                                               Zero article or no article is used  when we refer to 'Common Categories,' such as languages, sports, academic subjects, and meals. An example or two may suffice.  She speaks/studies Spanish, I play football, Breakfast is ready. 

Kyase kya ho gaya!

 Even if you might not have read the original novel by R.K.Narayan,  you  would have at least watched its filmy version as the Dev Anand starrer "The Guide", and  you would have surely loved the film, at least for the songs, right? In the film, there is this song  "kya se kya ho gaya" as the background score, when Rosie suspects Raju Guide of pilfering her money against a forged signature.

Currently in the public space is unfolding a private drama which would remind anyone of that song of sad repentance. The occasion is the bitter acrimony of the Mary Kom divorce saga.

Mary Kom has been a role model for a generation of women boxers, given her much narrated life story, what with a film dedicated to her journey. All along, the subscript had been her husband's silent but solid support.

Apparently, he was her coach initially, right? Once she rose to giddy heights in the arena of boxing, he was the support system who sportingly took the back seat, and cared for the family. Everything was portrayed to be so hunky-dory that the very mention of a divorce comes as a huge surprise.

Much worse are the undignified acrimonious accusations hurled at each other. If Mary Kom accuses her ex-husband of financial deception and monetary irregularities, he publically suspects her of conjugal deception in the form of a string of extra marital affairs!

It is sad that they are thus washing the dirty linen in public. It is a huge hit in the face of a woman player dedicated to her game. Tough it must be for the families, too. Instead, they could have gone for some silent separation which would have saved her dignity, instead of such a solid punch at the mask! 

Indeed a 'kya se kya ho gaya' lament not only for the lady, but also for the depiction of women in the public space, especially because it sends extremely regressive messages about a woman player's success!

Pratima@Is not it ironic that such "Raju guide" moments are often the fate of masterful women, be it Chanda Kochar of the ICICI  or Mariah Carey or Steffi Graf! Much worse is the sad(istic) tragedy of Radhika Yadav, right?

Quote of the day:                                                        "It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it," warns Warren Buffet.

Word of the day: a spat                                            A spat is a petty quarrel or angry outburst in public, often revealing unsavoury realities hidden behind the mask.

Let us learn grammar:                                              If we should use the indefinite article 'a/an' for professions (She always wanted to be a professor, an author), we use the definite article 'the' for oceans, seas, channels, rivers, canals, may be, because they are specific. Let us look at a few examples: the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, the English Channel, the Arabian Sea, the Suez Canal.

 

The Bicycle Race

 Pune was once known as the bicycle city. Those of us who have grown up in the city in the eighties and nineties would have been avid bicycle kids, right? If de Sica were to come to Pune till the late 1980's, he would have gotten many, very many indeed, bicycle briefs! 

It is hence most appropriate that the first ever Indian version of multi-stage road bicycle race, so very popular in most all countries, should begin in Pune. It is to start tomorrow from the iconic Good Luck Chowk, and would return to Deccan on Friday. Quite an auspicious beginning of the lunar month of Magh! 

This Pune version of the famous Tour de France is going to cover city roads as well as the hilly terrains. Quite tough this some four hundred thirty seven kilometers race would be for the one hundred and seventy one riders from twenty nine teams from thirty five countries. Puneites as keen n enthu spectators are going to love it though.

Yes, even today, there are cycle tracks on major Pune roads. If you ever were to go to the hip Hinjewadi area, most all I/T-wallahs would be riding a trendy gear bicycle to their swanky offices. Yes, even today the enterprising n adventours among the youngsters do go for bicycle trips n tours.

 Yet that magic of the absolutely unpolluted Pune full of the musical tring-tring of simple non-gear Hero or Hercules brand bicycles, which could even be rented for less than a rupee for an hour, is now missing. Instead we have the cycle brand agarbattis now! 

Hope such a bicycle race, supposed to be an annual event, brings back at least that nostalgia, if not the actual bicycles, almost impossible now, given the terrible traffic!

Pratima@ Nothing can beat the happy feel of pedalling away to glory, the wind singing in my ears, the feet n legs swinging rhythmically like a ballerina's, and the soul free n happy like a birdie's!                                                   And, oh, yes, the unique, the simply unforgettable memories of Papa teaching me to ride, the handle wobbling almost one eighty degrees on the first day to not even realizing soon that he is no longer holding the cycle from behind as a support! Such a lovely image for his absent yet forever present aura!

Quote of the day:                                                        H.G.Wells, who wrote "The Time Machine", maintains, "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, no longer do I despair for the future of the human race." 

Word of the day: nostalgia                                      Nostalgia means the sentimental longing and wistful affection for the past.

The New Equity Rules by the UGC

 Let us begin with the very meaning in simple words of the term 'equity'. The first clarification due in this context is that the term has no finance/economics/commerce related echo(s) in this context because the UGC does not mean it that way at all. 

What does equity mean in the general, non-finance sense? The term refers to the quality of being fair and just, especially in a way that takes account of and seeks to address existing inequalities. Fair-mindedness, in brief.

The general principles of equity and fairness are undoubtedly great. Why then the furore over the UGC 2026 Equity Rule? Let us see if our blog can explore it.

Actually, this legality, begun circa 2012, and  revisited in the 2016 Rohit Vemula case, and later the Payal Tadvi Case, was revived last year as a draft. There was a terrible critique of the draft as the OBC group was not included in the "discriminated". Now the OBC's are included as well. 

Why then is the 2026 rule being debated fiercely? Forget larger issues such as academic freedom and institutional autonomy! To begin with, the very definition of harassment is not clear-cut in the regulation. Much worse, the "false complaint" possibility is removed, too. 

In other words, targeting a person whom an individual/a group does not want around for whatever might be his/her/their own problems is going to be extremely easy! The 'general category' community feels actually threatened because of the removal of a fair and equitable opportunity to state the alternative version of the complaint. 

Tough times on campuses for sure! Hope the government re-calibrates the law with a sensitive attitude as the victim/victimiser duality is often non-transparent! The so-called victimiser has to have the right to state his/her side as well, right? In a Maharashtra where the Kopardi wounds are just a scab deep, such laws are sure to appear terrorising!

Pratima@ Yet another academic tornado  is a public interest litigation filed in the Supreme Court challenging the notice dated January 13 issued by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences which reduced the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26, apparently to minus 40!

The PIL is  filed by a social worker,  Harisharan Devgan, a neurosurgeon Dr.  Saurav Kumar, Dr Lakshya Mittal ( the President, United Doctors Front) and Dr Akash Soni, among others. The issue is the quality of medical education, and hence of medical service as a consequence, if the entrance qualifications are watered down that much.

Quote of the day:                                                  "Injustice anywhere," says Martin Luther King, "is a hindrance to justice everywhere." 

Word/Phrase of the day: "audi alteram partem" 

The right to a fair hearing is "audi alteram partem". It is a fundamental principle of natural justice. It means "listen to the other side," thus ensuring everyone gets a chance to be heard, present evidence, and challenge opposing claims before any decision is arrived at. It has to be a core part of any  procedural fairness, ensuring justice is done impartially and transparently in legal and administrative processes. 

Let us learn grammar:                                               Let us follow the rule of "no grammar during the week-end". 

 

A Marathon Man in Politics!

 "A Man for All Seasons" is an interesting play by Robert Bolt. It is based on the life of Thomas More. It deals with the importance of integrity, of staying true to one's conscience and ethical convictions, even at great personal cost. 

Integrity is always a tough proposition. It becomes dicey still when you participate in public life, and hence your every move is constantly under microscopic scrutiny. Surviving that constant 'gaze', and yet retaining one's own integrity and humane qualities, not to forget sanity, is indeed a constant battle, and with the self! Those who win it are not mere politicians; they are the statesman type, extremely rare. 

The submission of our blog today is that the man of the moment, Devendra Fadnavis, is on the path to such success in the public space.  No, I do not have any personal contact with him. Nor am i a particularly political person in any sense of the term. Yet I would like to make this statement assertively. 

Why? Let me see if I can clearly  explain such a stance. For one thing, when he joined the centre stage of Maharashtra politics, he was young. Yet he was always mature in his responses. Still he was refreshingly frank, too. He openly stated how irritated his well-wishers were, as he agreed to take the "external support" of-n-by Mr. Pawar. 

As in the case of the 2019 chief ministership of a day and a half, the 2014 'external support' possibly could not have been his own decision. Yet he got the worst flak which he faced with conviction and  courage, just like the  constant slurs against his caste, given the extreme and subtle caste prejudices in the contemporary Maharashtra politics.

He has been mocked viciously, and ad infinitum, for his "I shall come back..." quote. His own partymen saw to it that his maiden public meeting in Pune was a total fiasco. His mother, his wife have been targetted in an ugly way. Yet he continues to work hard, sincerely, and with a developmental vision.

Despite a huge win after horrible hard work ( he gave speeches in any number of back to back public meetings/rallies, appeared for countless interviews), this intelligent man requests his followers to avoid any rowdy excesses when it comes to the celebration mode.

In his acceptance speech after the current huge success, too, he did not covet the prize, ah, unlike our dear "amigo", El Señor Trump. Instead, he shared it with each and every one, the booth level party worker to the party top brass, not to forget the coalition partners.

 As usual, despite being an "effective" n witty speaker, his reactions were sensible and balanced. Even his interviews, I watched a few, hardly had any invective, and were more a roadmap with a developmental vision.  He surprisingly seemed to be quite aware of the latest developments in most all fields which sure would help in policy decisions and their execution which he could explain cogently.

He seems to have a connect with the common man, too. Why, during the COVID years, he was so much out in the field,  trying to help the afflicted that he himself was twice hospitalised with the dis-ease.  

No wonder, however much the critics may harp about the election process 'frauds' or the  Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions breaking away (why, seasoned, wily politicians, "they" chose it, and could have rejected it, if it was in any way inconvenient to them, right?) from "their" parties, his image does not suffer a dent. He continues to appear honest, clean, dedicated to welfare, devoted to a developmental ideation!

A good son and a wonderful father, he has often clearly showed the gumption to openly admit that he accepts his wife's different decisions. Quite chivalrous, given the standard image of 'political' wives, right?

In brief, his journey from a nobody to a center stage personality today has wonderful lessons about communication, about convictions, about conducting oneself no(ta)bly in the public arena, for instance. Undoubtedly, he must have the  unstinting support of the top brass in his own party. Yet no harm in admitting that it is tough to be a Fadnavis, and he sure deserves such kudos, right? Atta, Sir! You sure are a long distance runner, a marathon man in politics!

Pratima@Sure, his vicious critics would have all sorts of issues against him. I would not know such nitty-gritty. Yet he appears much better than most of his generation, especially if one remembers his decisions  such as accepting Gadchiroli for his ministerial mentorship. The milestone state run bus service there for the first time since Independence is sure quite an achievement. No riots either given his Home Minister-ship, right? Good governance indeed!

Quote of the day:                                                           "A good leader," says John Maxwell, "knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way " 

Word of the day: governance                                  Governance is the overall complex system or framework of processes, functions, structures, rules, laws and norms. 

Let us learn grammar:                                            We have to use the definite article 'the' if there is an anaphoric (prior reference) and/or cataphoric reference (forward reference) in the discourse. Forget these technical terms from linguistics.                                Let me give you an example which would clarify the meaning. The girl in the blue frock is my friend. (prior reference defining 'the' friend). Before he entered the interview room, the candidate took a deep breath. ("he" explained later).

The Army Day

 One of the advantages of the Google is that all possible searches, even without the AI, are easy. In fact, many online and/or offline publications provide brief leads to their content so as to win readers and garner footprints on their online sites as well as to encourage paid subscriptions.

An example should suffice, right? It was through such bits/bytes that I got to know that January 15 is the Army Day. It celebrates the taking over of the responsibility as the commander-in-chief of the Indian army by General Cariappa on January 15, 1949.

Such sovereignty of every individual nation now appears to be threatened, what with the 2026 Venezuela adventure and the Greenland threat looming large. Iran is on the boil, too, yet again! In other words, the current world scenario, unfortunately, is such that non-violence hardly seems to be the theme. 

Flexing of muscles is the drama most, whether at the personal or at the international level, seem to love. In such a "theater" (in all senses of this term, including the 'military' one), it is no use, in fact, it is almost not allowed, to be Goody-two-shoes. No, it is not the question of any self-image. It is plain and simple being misunderstood as weak! 

In other words, willy-nilly, every human-being like each nation, has to flex muscles, answer crooks in the language THEY understand! As an individual, one takes care that such abuse is only for those who very well deserve it, while it never ever reaches one's own core. 

Like individuals, nations, too, need, not merely the military power, but also the strength to understand the mind games being played, and subtly expose and counter them. More and more, life is a chess game, and to be the final winner, there is every need to understand and counter the crook with a wicked, twisted and  sadistic mindset and an army of such cheer leaders! The real army, in brief, is the mindscape that is not a victim of any mind game, however subtly played! 

Pratima@ With crooks, it is necessary to show them up. 

Quote of the day:                                                          Says H. E. Fosdick, "the problem with war is that it takes  man's best to do man's worst."  

Word of the day: warmonger                                    A warmonger is a person who encourages or advocates aggression towards other countries or groups.

Let us learn grammar:                                              Let us continue with the usage of articles. The definite article "the" is compulsorily used with superlatives. She was the wisest, but in the current scenario, she might be considered the weakest. She has to project herself as the strongest. 

Makar Sankrant

 Yes, Makar Sankrant is a very important festival, and for a number of reasons. To begin with, it ushers in the new year calendar of festivals our part of the world abounds with . It is, moreover, one of those festivals shared across the length and the breadth of our continental country.  The third major reason is what we noted yesterday. Yes, it relates  to the crop pattern in India, still a semi-agrarian country. 

Most important of all,  this astrological entity, "makar sankraman", the sun entering the Capricorn constellation, marks an astronomical phenomenon. With the Makar Sankranti begins the "uttarayan". The days start becoming longer. The winter begins to end. As the solar and the lunar calendars thus coalesce, this cyclicity, despite the climate crisis, matters a lot. 

In a way, hence, all the rituals associated with this festival easily gain justifications. The "gul poli" and the "til gul' are good for health, given the seasonal transitions. Kite flying is good for the Calcium D build-up, for instance. The " black" clothes are good for warmth, while the exchange of the " dugad" is a welcome tribute to potters and farmers, for instance. 

Yes, such details may (or not) convince the nay-sayers. Yet, with or without them, it is a lovely festival because, in my opinion, it asserts the importance of good communication. These days, most all people try to be as arrogant and ill-mannered as is possible. Hence the importance of good communication which the robots and the AI, too, are trying to emulate! Hope the festival energises people to be 'i-deal' communicators! 

Pratima@ in the lingo today, I love Sankranti.

Quote of the day:                                              "Sweetness shared is happiness multiplied," says an anonymous quote. 

Word of the day: observance.                Observance refers to the practice of observing the requirements of rituals, law, or morality. It may mean a careful watch as well. 

Let us learn grammar:                                            Let us keep on learning more and more about the usage of articles. We must use, for example, the definite article with musical instuments. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma played the santoor, for instance. Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasiya plays the flute so well that we feel we are listening to the Lord! 

Bhogi

 Why do we celebrate festivals like the Bhogi? Many reasons I can think of in/as explanation, especially because it is almost a pan-Indian festival, confirming in a way the 'civilisational unity' argument that could flourish full force since 2014.

True, not only in India, but across the whole world, there is rampant urbanisation, and its speed can compare comfortably with a supersonic jet. Yes, that force is taking people away from the roots so much so that hydroponics is no longer an academic jargon.

Despite such disturbing realities, at some primal subconscious level, we all love our roots  in the soil, in agriculture that in a way made us human beings from nomadic beast-like presences. May be, hence we need festivities that reconnect us to our original identities.

Even today, in a way, ours is an agrarian society. Hence such harvest festivals touch our souls. Bhogi is that pure vegetarian delight, with the bhogi special veggie that is made of all the "rabbi" produce, the sesame/til chatani that adds the much needed warmth in winters, fresh ghee/home made butter, and that staple food, khichdi. 

Such is the divine taste of this combo that no pizza can match it. Have you noticed that mostly for 'bhogi', it is the 'bajri bhakri', as in this second, 'rabbi' cycle of crops, with less rains, bajri can grow, unlike a water intensive crop like rice, for instance, right?

Aai was excellent at all these simple but divinely tasty items. I do continue all these traditions. In a way, they 'root' us, right? On the bhogi day, she used to make 'halwa', too. Extremely difficult, nay, tough, it is to make. She would sugar coat each sesame seed so perfectly that it would bloom in to that starry shape. Her finger tips would adroitly and adeptly sugar coat each sesame seed, without any scalding/burning. Superb art! The ochre colour used to be 'natural,' too. 

She used to fill the 'halwa' in to small pouches she herself decoratively stitched, and Papa would post those envelopes to all the relatives. No emoji can match that simple genuine gesture. Even though such loving presences are already past, I shall certainly continue their lovely memory-able(d) traditions in to the future.

Pratima@ Aai used to prepare the special jaggery-sesame filling necessary to make the Sankrant special 'gul poli', yet another extremely tough to make sweet. First item to be made in the morning tomorrow, til laddu and wadi, would be half ready, too. Commitment had a unique name, my parents, who made our childhood as sweet n tasty as the sankranti goodies! 

Quote of the day:                                           "Cultures grow on the vine of tradition," says Jonah Goldberg. 

Word of the day: lore                                              Lore is a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject, held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person, generation to generation by word of mouth.

Let us learn grammar:                                          Abstract nouns do not need articles either. 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and that is all ye need to know," wrote Keats, for instance. Yet , whenever there is some specific reference, the definite article 'the' would get used. The parental loving kindness makes us better human beings, for instance. 

Dedicated to youth!

 Swamy Vivekananda's birth anniversary falls on January 12. Absolutely unique individual he was! However much we may read about him, and from whichever angle, newer and brilliant aspects of his superb life emerge. 

Hence it irritates me that his birth anniversary gets celebrated as the Youth Day! No, sorry, I am NOT being cynical nor dismissive. Honestly though, the young today hardly inspire you to associate such a wonderful person with them. 

In a way, I could say that I should know. I teach senior college and post-graduate students. Very very rarely is there THAT spark. Most are over pampered. Most hence think no end of themselves which is a very sad "attitude" at any age, but surely BAD when young. It stultifies one's growth as an individual, I think. 

Let me give you a concrete example of this attitude. Last year, there was this student who always behaved as if he is better than Goethe at German. Poor soul! He could not manage the simple most accusative case, nor could he remeber the basic most usage regarding the placement of verb in a German sentence! 

Personally I am of the opinion that one should never throw one's  weight about, and surely not in a classroom. Students, however, are so blase that it is unbelievable. Most all times, they know next to NOTHING, but their absolute superiority complex both amuses, and, oh, yes, worries me!  

Yes, there ARE a few promising exceptions, but they prove the rule! For immediate temporary pleasure, most young can stoop down to any level. No, I never try to advise anyone. As it is, there are bothers enough in life! Why compound them, right? 

Yet one feels their despair, too, and then one continues to worry, given the radical shift introduced by the quite fatal, current change at the paradigm level! Here is wishing all the youngsters the Vivekanda spirit, his courage and his ability to think through in new ways!

pratima@ Being always  youthful in head, heart and soul is the real meaning of life, right? 

Quote of the day:                                                        "Arise, awake, and stop not until the goal is reached, " asserts Swami Vivekananda. 

Word of the day:  Demographic dividend.               Demographic dividend, as defined by the United Nations Population Fund, is "the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population is larger than the non-working-age share of the population".

Let us learn grammar:                                         Better not to use any article with proper nouns, that is the specific name of a person or a  town/city, for instance. Here are a few examples. Shakespeare's sonnets are as beautiful as his plays. Pune is already  a metro. 

Even then to indicate the uniqueness, the definite article may get used.  Let us look at a few examples. He is trying a natwarlal on you. He is quite the Veeru amongst the siblings! 

Piecing together the Peace Prize

  The Nobel Peace Prize is often dicey.  It becomes messier still when presidents are involved, especially American. Let us look at two examples, one awarded, hence debated; the other not awarded and hence debated, nay, a "h(e)ated" topic. 

Easy it is to guess who possibly could be the two individuals. Yes, I AM referring to Señor Obama and Señor Trump. Yes, the "Señor" is consciously used as Obama had a huge latino support which helped him win. As for Trump, no, it not his "winter White House", that is, his Florida estate, Mar-o-lago. Sure, more it is the after effect of the Venezuelan adventure! 

When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, Obama himself must have been surprised. In fact, even his loyal supporters felt that he did not deserve it. Sure, it gave him a halo which allowed him to lecture india in 2015 about tolerance, et al. 

Lucky for him that I was not in Delhi then. Ha! Ha! Ha! Forget the levity of this remark, but I genuinely wonder how/why nobody asked him about the American non-tolerance under his presidency. The U. S. was a major party(cipant)  in very many wars during the Obama regime. Oh, yes, how can anyone forget the 2008 implosion of economy either? Well, it led to his presidency in a way, right? 

May be, that is why, not getting the Nobel Peace Prize rankles the next incumbent of the presidential post, now in his second term. He himself lists the wars he stopped, some eight according to him, including the possible nuclear clash between us and our 'war-y' neighbour. Well, even a kindergarten kid in India knows the truth, right? 

Whatever recently happened in Venezuela and the current peace prize winner (from Venezuela, too) most no(ta)bly ready to trade hers with him casts aspersions on the peace prize as well. Thankfully, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has solid reservations regarding such an exchange.

Yet it clouds the very process of the nomination, right? Haste always leads to waste. If both of them had waited it out, may be, the crown would have been shinier!

Pratima@Like respect, prizes, too, cannot be demanded. Rather, both, respect and a respected prize, must be commanded!

Quote of the day:                                                   Theodore Roosevelt, a much honoured American president maintained, "Far and away, the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." 

Word(s) of the day: Award and reward         Something that is given by someone else to a recipient as a token of recognition for excellence in a certain field is called an award.

Something that is given to a recipient as a token of recognition for their service, effort or achievement is a reward. A reward can be intrinsic as well , as in "virtue is its own reward".

The Hindi Connect

 When is the World Hindi Day? Is it January 10 or is it September 14? Well, both the possibilities co-exist. On January 10, the first ever world Hindi conclave took place in Nagpur. The year was 1975.

As for the September date, on this day, in 1949, Hindi was constitutionally assigned the status of India's official language, and hence since 1953, September 14 is celebrated as the Official Language Day. 

Well, a legitimate question could possibly be as follows. If it is not India's national language, can it be internationally so important that there could be a world conclave some fifty-one years ago?

Well, the answer is that Hindi is not granted the national status, given the regional and linguistic varieties in India. It is, however, globally the third most spoken language after Chinese and Spanish.

Hindi itself has so very many dialects, each with its own uniquenesses. Given the Bollywood impact, however, the rest of India is more used to the Bambaiya version, and the "khadi boli"  with a huge smattering of the Punjabi effect. In its own way, this combo, too, has impacted india hugely as a subtle connect. Want proof? Even fifty years later, the cult lines from the "Sholay" dialogues continue to be mass favourites across the width and breadth of India! 

As January 10 happens to be the World Hindi Day, it is so significant that the ninety-ninth Marathi Literary Meet, the "Sahitya Sammelan", had Mridula Garg, a noted Hindi (and English) author, inaugurating the literary/cultural meet. Her inaugural speech, as reported in newspapers, et al, celebrated the Dalit literature in Marathi which impacted Indian literatures hugely.

 As Hindi, too, is a progeny of Sanskrit and as the script used is Devnagari, acquisition of Hindi is not difficult. In fact, in subtle ways, it has impacted Marathi vocabulary and usage. Languages, too, are sisters, and the sibling bond is always strong! 

Pratima@ Actually, each and every language influences the other. Why not respect every language as it is the  best mode of communication? 

Quote of the day:                                                         "A different language," asserts Frederico Fellini, "is a different vision of life." 

Word of the day: lingua franca                              Lingua franca is a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose mother tongues are different/varied. In India, English is the lingua franca, for instance. 

Let us learn grammar Monday onwards, as it is the weekend mood right now 

The NRI Affect

 As it is January 9 today, is it not but normal that the theme of our blog today should be the NRI. Now let me explain the "affect" bit of the title of our blog. Whether as a verb or as a deverbal noun, 'affect' primarily means 'have an effect on/make a difference to'. 

In 1915, on January 9, for instance, after spending more than two decades in South Africa, Gandhiji returned to India, a major factor that affected the freedom movement. Hence the biennial celebration of the 'pravasi bhartiya diwas' to remember how the non-resident Indians can change the very destiny of india. 

'Affect' can mean touch the feelings of, move emotionally. The NRI's no longer create this affective ripple. For one thing, unlike the sixties to eighties, when there actually was  brain drain, it is no longer so. Post the Y2K scare, any software could land you abroad. In fact, a few enterprising souls got themselves years-long experience certificates for software packages and languages introduced world-wide just a few months ago! The 'Oracle-ar' affect, for instance!

'Affect' can, moreover, mean infect. None is any longer thus affected, no, not even the brokers in the marriage market because it is already an open secret that most NRI's lead a middle class life there, what with additional disadvantages such as the do-it-yourself praxis there, not to mention the loneliness and very heavy taxes and racial slurs. 

In other words, no longer is the NRI status magical. Just look at the sheer numbers of both the white collar and blue collar workers.  Eight to nine millions in the Middle East, some four to five millions in the USA, some one point eight million in the UK, two to three millions in South-East Asia, one point six million in Canada, and some seventy lakhs in Australia. These absolutely non-inflated numbers do not include the indentured labour, in Fiji or Trinidad, now 'norm'alised as natives after generations. 

What with the (r)evolution in/of the communication technology, especially after the Corona online onset, there indeed is a global Village effect. Instead of haunting cultural ghettos there as the ABCD, that is, the America/Abroad born(e) confused desi's, many prefer the 'made in India' lifestyle!

I can speak a little authoritatively on these themes because I taught at the post- graduate level a two semesters long, eight credits strong paper entitled "Immigrant Literature'. Great fun and intellectual excitement it was to thus unravel theoretical structures/strictures through interesting texts, to relate them to theoretical models world wide. We all, excited students and their equally enthu/energy-efficient teacher, loved the in-depth analyses which I constantly contextualised through the framework(s) of other immigrant experiences.

Thus have I known in quite some detail the dreams that light up, the nightmares that fire back and the stars that dazzle the daylight (out) of the NRI experience, which does create not merely financial fertility back in the motherland, but quite a veneer as well of the soft power of India(s) in the other(ed/ing) land!

Pratima@ The Browning glorification of the "Ah, to be in England now" variety is now easily possible, what with the 3-D/4-D access to most all life experiences the 5G way! 

Quote of the day:                                                         "To be an immigrant, good or bad, is about straddling two homes, whilst knowing you don't really belong to either," asserts Nikesh Shukla.

Word of the day: native                                            A 'native' is a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not. 

Let us learn grammar:                                             We must use the definite article 'the' with every abbreviation. The UK, the US, the UNO, the BRICS, the DHFL, the FC, the BMCC, the SPPU, for instance.

The Bird Day

 No, the title is not a mock at the village idiot type pronunciation of "birthday". I AM referring to birds, and the day dedicated to them. Yes, in India, January 5 is the bird day. Why, this bird day, avian scientists found three amur falcons who are some migratory wonders. 

In my school days, we had to prepare very many projects. One such project that I had loved was about migratory birds. Those young days, it literally was a wonderland for me. Why, even now, I find the migratory capacities of birds simply wonderful. Raju, my brother, sent me beautiful pics of the pink herons, the beautiful migratory birds who nest in the garden of the Merchant Navy institute where he teaches. For days on end, I was in the seventh heaven, like those wondrous beauties. 

My morning always begins with all sorts of lovely warbles. Without fail, small birds nest in our trees. I neatly preserve their nests. Each next year, some pair or the other uses the nest of the earlier year somehow or the other. Once, during the childhood days, an unbelievably beautiful blue bird had nested in our jui/jasmine creeper. We had guarded the nest literally like the police!

Once a bird mother had deserted her chick. I had literally fed it for days. The silly beak that would open each second I would hover there was both a pity and a beauty. One fine day, he just flew away in my face!

Lovely memories I have of birds. Once I had taken Kunal to Peshwe Park. We were standing together in front of the peacock enclosure. God alone would know what the peacock felt, but he spread full his lovely plumage, and 'danced' for minutes on end. Enchantéd we both were, and stood there as if our very sense of time was lost! 

Yes, birds are our best friends. The generation today eats their baby food in the company of some weird mobile cartoon. We ate ours in the company of the moon, the sparrows about whose city disappearance I wrote an article in a major newspaper. 

Birds have for ages mesmerised mankind. Their joyful fancy flights, their lovely appearances, the sense of freedom their life enshrines, no wonder, they are the themes of countless literary texts, and the muse that energised Wright Brothers. The aeroplane is a great invention because in a way it helps us enjoy a bird's flight. 

True, the cityscape today is dominated by crows and pigeons who are excellent at making a nuisance of themselves. And, yet, at a busy crossroad, while waiting for the signal to turn green, if one sees a flight of birds, the very soul starts singing, and flies away with the heavenly (in all senses of the word) wings! Long live birds, even when the cruel Corona was somehow caught in their wings!

Pratima@ Very soon I am going to try all the adventure sports that give one the feel of bird like flying.

Quote of the day:                                                        "I would like to paint the way a bird sings," asserts Claude Monet, one of my favourite most artists.

Word of the day: avian.                                             'Avian' refers to the bird or the bird like (as an adjective). 

Let us learn grammar:                                         Whatever is unique, one of its kind, always is preceded by the definite article 'the'. Nature, the unique creator, would provide many such examples, right? The earth, the sun, the moon, the Ganges, the Himalayas can be a few familiar instances.

 

Journalists deserve a day!

 Believe me, being a journalist is quite a high! I should know! During my Ph. D. days, I free-lanced with major newspapers which include "The New Indian Express", "The Hindu" and the "Newstime" of the Eenadu group. 

Well, to begin with, i got all these assignments absolutely on my sheer merit. As for the "New Indian Express", with whom my experiments with journalism began, I just walked in to their office in Hyderguda. I did not know a soul there. I was asked to write a film review.

 Beginning with the title "Amrika to Jana hi tha," my fresh approach to film criticism, which consisted of analysing the 'film', and beyond mere story telling, was so much appreciated that I became a part n parcel of the Features' Desk there n then. My very first book review was hugely appreciated by the author, who, I did not know it, turned out to be the Regional Editor's best buddy. 

Literally, there was no looking back after that. Despite being a freelancer, I used to write at least four articles per week. The themes were as varied as psychiatry and women, palliative therapy, cancer in children, the newly emerging IVF therapy and its impact on women's (emotional) health, for instance. My bylines were varied, but always liked. 

They were often syndicated in Orissa and the four Southern states. It was quite a humbling experience when while reading up research material in the ASRC, some scholar(s) from Orissa, Kerala or Tamilnadu would walk up to me to tell me how much he/she liked some xyz article of mine.

I wrote fun pieces, conducted interviews, wrote reviews of all the fine arts related events, covered all sorts of festivals which made even the Chief Minister admire the coverage. I could practice how to write well, poetically yet precisely, given the deadline and the word limit.  My articles were rarely edited, and were admired because there never was any fluff, but truly good content full of thoughts and ideas. 

It got me a break in to two portals. Of these two, the fullhyd.com chief editor/owner himself came down to the NIE office to invite me to write for them. Articles therein were praised a lot, too. I wrote some ten articles for The Hindu. That intro was through the NIE contact, too. Often Asra of the "Newstime" and I used to cover events together. Thus i got in to the "Newstime" where I even wrote front page leads, and my articles were weekly earmarked by Ramoji Rao garu himself, which was a huge high for the Features' Desk. 

As a sincere, committed journalist, I got to see the good, the bad and the ugly of a cross section of society. Petty academics giving themselves huge airs while the rest of the society knew their non-existing worth used to hurt me a lot, as I was after all from and into academics. 

Child stars to big directors, famous authors, nascent artists, one met and interacted with most interesting people. It was quite satisfying that my film review thumbnails used to be quoted in the newspaper film ads, and along with Subhash Jha's!

Social media, which started dominating especially since the COVID days, was non-existent then. Truth value, authenticity, sincerity were the key-words. Commitment mattered, and as for partisanship, it was not so  very open n blatant! Fake news as of today was not even heard of, forget reels, et al.

Yet,  yes, I even got to know the 'inside stories' such as how a group could run a newspaper to save on the (income) tax. Hence, though I got a free hand to write on varied themes, I understood the pain of my seniors,  mid-career journalists with nowhere to go, when the newspaper was closed suddenly one day!

Now, the world over, newspapers are surely dying a not so slow death. Nobody believes journalists who are often openly canvassing a certain political party, an ideology, while investigative journalism is more for the Youtubers, and to media houses owned t.v. channels to some extent. Sad but true! Times they are always a-changing, and yet the memories of those days remain forever fresh, even when the pages are slowly yellowing!

Pratima@ Ah, to be a freelancer in those happy days! Hence this journey down the memory lane as January 6 gets celebrated as the journalists' day.

Quote of the day:                                                      "Write what should not be forgotten," said Isabel Allende. One of the high's of being a freelancer is that each and every author one has admired has always been a journalist, a correspondent, a reporter in his/her early years!

Word of the day: Media                                               Media refers to the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively. Incidentally, 'media' is the plural of 'medium', and should be used accordingly.

Let us learn grammar:                                              At times, adjectives can be used as nouns, and such usage requires the definite article. Let us look at a few examples.                                               1) The rich do not understand the poor.            2) The young find the old boring.                                           3) The unusual makes life interesting.

Delhi and Students: Two faces of student protest! Two-faced, too?

 Delhi, the capital city, is in news yet again. Are you saying, 'What is so great? After all, the national capital! Would be in the news, anyways'? Well, let me mention the two reasons why I am referring to Delhi thus. May be, you, too, would find the statement newsworthy. 

The first refers to the NTA NET subject specific questions. Well, the NET English Lit exam was conducted yesterday, and, boy, was there a furore! Well, it is always argued that the NET is tougher than the SET, anyways.

I would not know. I have never appeared for the SET, while I have twice cleared the Eng Lit NET, with the JRF/SRF. Both my attempts, moreover, were the analytical, critical essay types, not the current easy MCQ way. The essay questions used to be set by professors from  top universities such as the Delhi Univ, the  Jadavpur Univ, the JNU, the BHU, for instance. Huge authenticity the exam would have for SURE!

As for the SET, those in the know always grumble about all sorts of malpractices, indirect question leak, 'adjusting' the result, et al. I have absolutely zero knowledge about any such issues as I never ever tried the SET. Nor did I need it, given my NET score.

Well, I do have a solid problem with the current MCQ nature of the NET. For one thing, it gets reduced to be more of a lucky guesswork. How/why can such a qualifying test be a mere/more memory test? Lecturers need to analyse, explicate, clarify. Their hold over the language has to be near perfect, especially when it comes to Humanities, Social Sciences, languages, and especially, literature.  

Well, the hoo-haw yesterday was about the difficulty level of the test! Well, if you are going to be teaching literature/language, your own hold over both the content/medium has to be real good! As it is, most PG (Distance Mode, eh?) students boast of rarely attending lectures! Their awareness of the width/breadth/scope is almost nil as answers are often guide (of the guide books or of the AI variety)-based.

Given such products, there are lecturers/professors who are "Ph.D. degree holders", but cannot form a single correct sentence in English, forget orally, not even in writing! Their use of tenses is simply wonky. Articles are noteworthy by absence, for instance. 

How they could get a doctorate is itself worth serious research. Well, I have heard a research "guide" repeatedly boast that his student(s) provide him with "everything" in an apartment upstairs, and voilà, within a week, the thesis is ready!!!As it is, theses are mostly sent to external examiners who are 'friends', and it is a give-n-take every which way!

Sobbingly people talk of their village school/college days, poverty, tough life, et al. Why hurry then for a doctorate or for a lecturer's plum position? Why not first work on the language at least, if not the content? If you pretend to write the thesis in English, there possibly cannot be basic errors from the title page onwards, right? Even after decades and decades after "finishing"  the doctorate, your language is not much to write, forget home, anywhere about, what gives you the right to guzzle huge salaries, without sincerely conducting lectures either?

If your research does not even mention basic well-known resources in the area, what kind of research is it? In other words, at some point or the other, there has to be some quality check. The NET has to have a higher level of difficulty, like the GRE, for instance.

Sure, the NET should be more analytical, explanatory, short notes/essay question types. The MCQ quotient should be minimal. There, in brief,  have to be some stringent measures though that grant some basic minimum quality to being a lecturer, beyond the "connects/contacts, caste/creed, money and leaks" concoction! May be, the NET could clarify the exact portion with more precision.

Students cannot go down the 'i want a fat pay cheque without much ado ' lane, while trying to be a lecturer. If they want to teach in an English medium college, their own English HAS to be good! They cannot argue for easy questions in a qualifying test! 

Similarly, whatever happened in the JNU this morning is a shame, too. For the sake of an undertrial whom the court considers not worthy of a bail, you cannot target the PM, the HM! It is stated openly, moreover, that the delay tactics are by the lawyers of this poster boy of the "kabr khudegi" and "tukde tukde" gang. Moreover, this sub judice case may attract a Mamdani, but there CANNOT be any interference in the sovereign matters of a country. Period! 

And why the attack on a specific colour, please? The colour is not merely political, party specific. And, oh, yes, how about the atrocities committed against the minorities in Bangla Desh? Would the JNU types (who give a bad name to Marx whose books, who knows if they have actually read) roar for "digging a grave" of the perpetrators in Bangla Desh? Injustice is injustice, and cannot be conveniently (mis)quoted!

Pratima@A wrong is a wrong is a wrong!

Quote of the day:                                                          "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, " argues Martin Luther King.

Word of the day: Opportune.                 'Opportune' is an adjective which means suitable, favorable, or well-timed for a particular purpose, often suggesting a moment that leads to success. It describes, in brief, something happening at the right moment, making it advantageous.

Let us learn grammar:                                                 Just as we should learn when we must use the articles, we must know when not to use the articles. When referring to the primary function of places like school, college, university, temple, hospital, prison, we need not use any articles.                                                                        Let me give an easy to remember example. Kasab went to jail (primary function as he is a convict), but the journalists went to the jail to interview him.                                                       2)I am a lecturer. I go to college to teach. My  students'  parents come to the college to watch the dhol performance.                                    3)She is a doctor. She goes to hospital. The relatives of the patient visit the hospital

Vision

On January 4 is celebrated the birth anniversary of Louis Braille. As he empowered the life of the visually impaired through the invention of the tactile mode of reading known as the Braille script, the day is also celebrated as the World Braille Day.

Given the era of the AI-empowered modes of sight improvement, given the aural ways of helping the affected, given the very many softwares, much better is now the life of the visually impaired than it was even a decade ago. There is, moreover, a huge awareness of the human rights of the visually impaired.

Yet has 'vision' improved? That indeed is the moot question. Unfortunately, however, the answer to this query is a big 'no'. In fact, though the physical 'sight' may have encouragingly found many a ways of improvement, 'vision' is getting dimmer and dimmer by the day.

Let us look at a few concrete examples. Remember our blog yesterday that listed a number of women who formally began teaching women, education for women as early as 1811! Yet the power of the enshrined vision is such that truth, factually established through serious scholarship, pales before a convenient casteist vision! 

Such is the impairment of vision these days! Everything is now a group dependent narrative. Depending on the group you belong to, you can maraude any factual truth, too. If your victim does not belong to any power clique, not even God would be able to help her/him, as all sorts of narratives would be released to falsify a truth, a reality, a fact!

In addition to such group identity, what seems to be clouding vision is the self-centred-ness. If an immediate benefit, however small, to self is to be managed, people can trample mercilessly any relationship.  Such are the blinds, the categorical imperatives Kant referred to, made of class, caste, creed kind of usual favourites to plain simple selfishness that totally blurs realities. That is the vision these days! What such victimisers do not  realise is that they would sooner, and not  much later, be the next victims of such a vision!

Pratima@ Opaque vision may blind many to their own imminent victimhood!

Quote of the day:                                                     "Vision," clarifies Jonathan Swift, one of the most ethical of satirists, "is the art of seeing what is invisible to most." 

Word of the day:blueprint                                        A blueprint is the vision of an enriching future. It can be a roadmap to a great vision of the future.

Let us learn grammar:                                                We do not use any article with the uncountable nouns. We work hard so that we can earn our bread and butter, for instance. I do not like rice, but coffee is my favourite.                                                                     However, when we specify the uncountable, the definite article 'the' has to be used. Let me give you an example or two. I prefer coffee to tea. The Bru coffee is better than the Nescafe. Let us avoid butter and ghee, say the nutritionists. The Amul butter and the Chitale ghee are preferred by many home-makers though.

Accepting alternative versions

 What makes one truly human(e)? I suppose, it is accepting that an alternative reality, which may defy your interpretation(s), exists. If you insist that only your version IS the reality, you are falsifying life itself.

Let me give you an example or two. If you think that only your childhood was THE best one, you have neither seen nor understood the varieties of life which is far more complex. Yet another example could be the so-called obsession with some innocent person, and thereby spreading the vulgarest and the vilest rumours about an absolutely innocent woman out of your brainless vindictiveness. Who gives any creep any right to "finish off" clean lives?

Now yet another interesting example! Who initiated, who is the first person who began women's education in India? J. Sai Deepak provides many gazetted proofs of the South Indian realities. As for the then Bombay province, let me tell you, circa March, 1824, it was Gangabai whose brilliant efforts came to a sudden close due to the outbreak of plague.

The Missionary efforts, that had supported Gangabai, continued. In 1826, two hundred and four girls were studying in Mission school. In 1827, Cynthia Farrar came to India from Boston, and superbly continued the tradition. Later, her 1839 school in Ahmednagar had a student, Savitribai Phule. Jyotiba Phule himself praised Farrar's 'teacher training programme', and admitted Savitribai there before initiating the Pune school. Farrar continued her support later, too.

In the then Calcutta province, the story is richer still. There are women educators such as Hoti Vidyalankar, for instance, who ran a school for women as early as 1811! Not only are there many more Bengali women educators who ran schools, even night schools, for women, but there are also women editors who ran journals/magazines for women. All such details are corroborated by contemporaneous documents, including gazettes.

Why not accept the reality then, instead of insisting on an established narrative, which, moreover, suited the colonisers? While the Dilip Mandal kind of fabrication is absolutely problematic, ignoring an existing genealogy because it is inconvenient to one's own (casteist?) narrative(s) is incomprehensible, too!

Pratima@Historical facts must be accepted as they are. As more and more historical documents emerge, become accessible and available, may be, the existing theories need to be re-written. That honest objectivity has to be the base of scholarship.                                  Otherwise, scholarship would be like the now extinct Phoebus Bulb Company that consciously created bulbs that would not last long so that the company would flourish, though at the expense of the customers!

Quote of the day:                                                       "Should we be (re)writing history just to make people feel good? That is not histroy. That is psychiatry," asserts Edward I. Koch.

Word of the day: bigotry.                                           Bigotry refers to an unreasonable and stubborn attachment to one's own beliefs, resulting in intolerance toward those who hold differing views.

A unique day

 January 3 is unique this year. Each year it is, given the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule. This year, it is the planetary alignment that makes it special; in fact, simply unique. 

It is the full moon day today. This very first full moon in 2026 happens to be a supermoon. Perigee wise, the moon is the closest to the earth. Simultaneously, perihelion wise, the earth is as close as is possible to the sun. In other words, we can say that the sun, the moon and the earth are as close to each other as is cosmically possible. 

As if that is not enough, the earth is at its fastest orbital speed today which makes the imminent meteor shower most remarkably visible. Whenever such cosmic alignments take place, I regret staying in a city as the artificial lights dim such glory.

Earlier, I used to attend the planetarium kind of events to watch such unique cosmic combos through a powerful telescope. In the last week of February, 2026, six planets are going to appear in a row literally, and are, moreover, going to be visible to the naked eye. Here is hoping that I would get to see Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune orbiting in a row!

Pratima@ Each full moon day, I remember Aai ardently because she, despite her aching knees, would make it a point to watch the full moon every month in her eightieth year as it was the year of the "Sahastra Chandra Darshan". Neither rain nor cold nor the moon rising/being visible late could deter her. I love and hugely respect such unwavering commitment.

Quote of the day:                                                        "The sky is an endless dream," says Ralph Waldo Emerson. YES, indeed!

Word(s) of the day:                                                   1)Perigee means the point in the orbit of the moon (or even a satellite) at which it is nearest to the earth.                                                                  2) Perihelion refers to the point in a planet's (or every celestial body's) elliptical orbit where it is closest to the Sun, occurring annually for the Earth roughly around January 3, when it is about 3 million miles closer to the Sun than at its farthest point (aphelion) in July.                                                      As it is the week-end, we would not learn grammar. Hence let us understand a little more how such terms are constructed.                The prefix "peri-" comes from Greek, and means "around, about, near". In Greek, "ge" is the earth, while "helios" is the sun. Thus is it easy to remember such terms that refer to these distant objects and their 'peri'pheries.

N.B.: May be, the God is offered all the veggies as the "naivaidya" today, the Shakambhari (the name, too, supports this interpretation) Pournima, as the earth that gives us all the plants is the closest both to the moon and the sun.

How to...?

 How to wake people up? About empty glory, I mean. That is the worry. Let me give a few examples which should clarify the issues underlying the angst of any sensitive soul. 

Visit any household these days, (but, of course, online! Who invites whom home these days?) and the impression that would be created would be that their kids are overflowing with talent. 

If you were to quietly observe these talent bombs, what do you find? Sorry to have to say it, but all that is there is 'secondary': they can create reels, they can construct rhymes, they can run threads, for instance. Now it is an open secret that the ChatGPT (and/or any number of such AI versions) 'manages' such talent halo around any head! 

Visit any campus event. It would be the same 'games', the same dance steps, the same empty  revellery, the same eatery 'thelas', and so on, and so on, "the same" being the underlying motif. 

Why the worry then? Well, if everything is so very same, and hence, by implication, without 'thinking', without genuine creativity, where is the uniqueness that defines an individual? Yet another grave issue would be the following. If life is just such empty, repetitive fun, have we already arrived the stage of "no work" that M/S Musk, Gates and others of the ilk have been promising five years hence!?! 

Pratima@No, I do not have anything against fun or enjoyment. The worry is against its being empty and repetitive! Just let us think about this 'reality' check. Every season each channel floods the spectators with so much 'talent'. Where are they thereafter, please?!? Are we creating empty crowns on the heads of the next generation? What happens when the reality hits one fine day that there is NOTHING, practically NOTHING, underneath! That is the question! 

Quote of the day:                                                        "Where is the glory," asks Rick Riordan," in repeating what others have done?" 

Word of the day: vainglory.                              Vainglory is the excessive pride in one's own minor achievements.

Let us learn grammar:                                               Let us now start looking at the use of the definite article "the". Let us begin with the basic most. "The" is used when a common, countable, singular noun has a specificity of reference. May be, it is referred to for the second time in a given context, for instance.

Let us look at an example. Let us read a story. "Once upon a time, there was a lion. The lion lived in a cave. In the cave, scurried about a mouse. The mouse thought no end of himself. " Thus would continue the story. Look at the use of "a" and "the" in these introductory lines. We shall understand further aspects of this "defining" as we go by.

A few questions as a new year begins

If it is the very first day of the new year, and you get a chance to listen to a Ph.D. viva voce, it can indeed be a very happy feel, right? Luckily, the BMCC Research Center provided me with such an opportunity this morning. I could attend online the viva of Dr. Lanjekar Sir's research student. 

For me, listening to it was yet another lesson in rural distress. The study related to 2014-15 to 2019-20. It detailed the usual sad story which P. Sainath, the noted "Hindu" columnist and the author of a much acclaimed book entitled "Everybody Loves a Good Drought", has repeatedly brought to the notice of every sensitive soul.

Hence even in Galande Sir's presentation, all the usual suspects, poverty, structural inequities, caste discrimination and farmer suicides, were all present. 

I would have liked to open up a deeply connected but slightly different scope/area. The most obvious fall-out of the terrible rural distress is the huge internal migration. To Pune daily in droves come such rural labourers or even farmers with marginal land-holding. 

Honestly, passing by Swargate, my unavoidable bus-stop, is a vista etched in deep tragedy where, by the roadside, live families who are yet to be absorbed in to the umpteen dingy zopadpatties/slums surrounding the Parvati Hill, now almost a hillock, for instance.

It is easy to talk en passim about the fast pace of urbanisation. These migrant families, who make the faceless majority of the urban swell, how do they exist, especially when they also have to bear the expenses of the aged left behind in the company of the bare barren lands? 

Mostly, they take up gig jobs. They are the backbone of the gig economy which began as a fall-out of the post-LPG era, and flourished like the weed in a farm in the post-Covid era. I would have liked to discuss how this gig economy has affected not merely the rural lower income group, but by extension the rural distress as well.

When the head of a family leads a hand to mouth existence in a city, given the gig economy, how does he, can he at all, support the family back at home? In other words, rural distress flows in to urban disaster, and urban poverty feeds in to rural tragedy, and this vicious circle, running almost in a loop, refuses to subside.

A rice plantation farmer, who drives an auto in Pune, was once sharing his terrible tragedy. I had to travel in his auto because it suddenly started pouring. It was early October. So in his acre or two of a farm, the crop was ready, to be cut before Diwali. With the sudden showers, the ready grains would rot, could not be dried and stored as they thus start to germinate! He told me the same sad story of the previous two years, too!

He was driving the auto-rickshaw as a driver, not as the owner. In a way, it, too, was a variant of the gig economy which now is operational at all levels, almost to mid- management, and in many professions, including teaching!

What could be the solutions? I had suggested collective or community farming and vertical farming alias hydroponics as well as alternative crops more amenable to excessive rain. People have come up with the idea of the corporatising of the farming industry, which could be debated. Such solutions might help rural farm distress. 

As the Indian economy itself is even today more of the unorganised sector variety, what happens to the workers caught in the jaws of the gig economy in most big cities and metros? What about the total lack of any safety nets or social welfare network for them? Aplenty are the questions, answers amiss right now, but hopefully emerging!

Pratima@Yes, across the world, given the climate imbalance, all these issues, rural farm distress, internal migration, city gig workers are dominant. May be, we can learn from those solutions as well.

Quote of the day:                                                       "Out of difficulties," argues Jean de la Bruyère, "grow miracles."  

Word if the day: hydroponics.               Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent, often with an inert medium (like perlite or coco coir) for root support, enabling faster growth, less water use, and higher yields in small or controlled spaces, suitable for herbs, greens, and vegetables year-round. 

Let us learn grammar:                                               As we have already learnt to use the indefinite article "a" (it goes with a common, countable, singular noun used for the first time), let us now look at how to use "an". "An", too, is used with a common, countable, singular noun. This noun, however, has a vowel sound word initially.                                       Let me give you "an example".                           "A university"  often has "an hour" long lecture.