The Birth of Poetry

At Hundred

 Is Hundred! Continues to turn heads! Whom do you think i am thus describing? A lady? True it is that a lady turns more beautiful as she matures. Rather like a pickle. The older, the sweeter n tangier, right? No, though! We are not talking about any aging beauty! 

The entity we are talking about, however, too, is not withered, though it turns hundred. In fact, it continues to 'turn heads' in both the denotative and connotative senses of this phrase. Okay, let me not waste time and footage on n in guessing games. Yes, i am talking about the UPSC. It turned hundred on October 1, 2025.

I do know that some of my readers are already steadfast followers of this unique entity. For their sake, a nutshell history! Its conception, as a follow up of the Montague Commission recommendations, is as old as 1919. Given its proper Macaulay spirit, this exam then was so Britain-oriented that no Indian could clear it till 1922. In 1925, the ICS producing exam took the shape which we now know.

Even now, it is one of the toughest exams to crack. Often candidates may require any number of attempts. The more focussed ones start preparing for it alongside their degree studies. Political Science, Economics, History are the favourite subjects of such aspirants. I would say that they should be very good at psychology, communication and emotional intelligence as well,  as theirs are going to be people sensitive jobs. 

The IFS/IAS officers to be, who work truly hard to get in to these power echelons, should be ethical as well because they are the real decision makers. Remember the brilliant BBC laugh riot entitled "Yes, Minister"? Despite its comic excesses, it did show how the Secretary, the Joint Secretary, the Under Secretary, such hierarchy actually handles, and can manipulate, the ruling class as "ministers may come n go, the system is ours."

In other words, the leaders depend on the genuine inputs by these bureaucrats. We do know of the very many  positive feeds by the IFS/IAS/IRS officers who, as interns, learn at the Mussoorie training institute the how of processes of actual governance and  the wheels (within wheels) in it as it really runs. Actually, the  job does come with many tantalising perks so much so that in the dowry bazaar, the price of such a groom is quite high! 

Such nasty realities apart, actually the  three-tier UPSC entrance exam (the prelims, the mains, the interview) hones the aspirant's knowledge base, tones the perspective in the context of the current international and national realities, and thus clones a responsible officer. 

Such a glad tiding it is that women candidates excel in these exams, despite the nerve-wracking prep period. Supposedly, such a higher percentage would sensitise the actual working of the bureaucracy as the belief is that women tend to be less corrupt.

 Yes, bureaucrats could be corrupt as they do have tremendous  power. Actually, corruption in various forms is the tragedy of most all careers. Yet, in this case, too, it is the two percent genuine contributors who literally carry the weight of the nation. 

Like the army, the bureaucracy, too, is not as obvious as the parliament, the court, the media houses when it comes to protecting the democratic feel. Yet, like the army, stellar is its role. The UPSC exam hence can now be attempted in the mother tongue so that the regional raw talent,  too,  can try it.

Of course, as for any competitive exam with a very low success rate, there is a regular IAS training market, especially in Delhi, and now online, too. Sone such famous Guru's wield quite some power over the social (media) imaginary. 

Certain age-old journals such as the CSR do help the aspirants prepare well as they have to be absolutely update with the current news as well. As there IS a certain luck factor when it comes to passing the three-pronged process, it is always better to have a Plan B ready.

 May be, the Mains Prep may help the candidate crack the equally tough NET exam which can help the candidate be a lecturer, and possibly pursue a Ph. D. if she passes the NET with JRF/SRF. Well, I am rather happy about the fact that I passed the NET (with JRF/SRF) twice, and in its earlier analytical/descriptive, non-MCQ, version.

Well, I have mentioned the necessity of a Plan B so that all that prep does not go waste. Such candidates can join the MSW workforce or run an NGO, may be. Otherwise, despondency and depression set in which I observed at close quarters as I used to teach English to MPSC students. 

I taught English at that center for two years, four evening batches, mostly rural students with dreams of making it big. At least, the UPSC exam takes place on time, and the results, too, are declared annually, and within a set time-frame!

At Hundred, certain most welcome changes, given the AI invasion especially, are sure to take place. Here is wishing the UPSC (and the hopeful's) creative contribution to our nation as state!

Pratima@The UPSC, for me, has a rather senti connect. Papa appeared for it, cleared the mains as well. Due to family responsibilities, he had to give up his dream at the third n final, at the interview, level. Never did he, the dutiful son  that he was, grumble about it.

May be, he would have been very happy if I were to chase the dream. He never imposed it on me though. Good in a way because I do think that such authority comes with much too much political interference which often can be highly suspicious, motivated, and hence destructive n dangerous! How a tiff between a 'Netaji' and an officer, especially if conscientious, could turn nasty is not merely a guess, right?

The Art of Heart

 The art of heart! What thinketh Thee? That the title of our blog today is topsy turvy? Nope! I mean what I say, or write, for that matter. Yes, critics generally talk of the heart of/in, et al, art. Oh, yes, that is right, too, as i, a student of critical theory and literature, can vouch for. Good art has to have heart. For sure. Otherwise, it would be empty frippery. 

Anyways, that is not our theme today. We ARE indeed going to talk about the art of heart. That could mean a number of things. For one (and for once, too), not merely should  hospitals be state of the art. Hearts, too, should be so! Oh, no, wrong guess again! No, we are not referring to the heartlessness much on exhibition these days.

Rather, let us discuss the lack of healthy hearts these days. No, this statement has no symbolic underpinnings. The Heart Day, observed annually on September 29, has such awful data, proving that the heart disease, be it ischemic syncope or angina or be it the actual heart attack, is attacking the young. No longer is it merely an enemy of the senior citizens. The threshold has come down to forty-ish. 

Be it the heart ailments, be it the b.p. and diabetes (both of which are literally feeders for the heart trouble) are all life style diseases. Life as an eternal race, hence acute stress, poor eating and drinking habits, low quality of nutrition, air pollution, the list is endless that leads to arterial thickness/narrowness, and so on. The statin in most blood thinners, the alpha/beta blockers in the b.p. medicines, can indeed prove how medicine itself is danger(ously) poison(ous)!

Thus is needed the art of maintaining a healthy heart, and hence the title of our blog today. This art consists of maintaining not merely a healthy life style, but developing a proactive personality that protects the self at all layers of our existence. The need of the hour literally for all the age groups is the art of (maintaining a healthy every which way) heart!

Pratima@ Heart is where health is! Health is where heart is!

Two Ways of being THE Woman

 I would not know about you, Dear Reader, but I adore Sherlock Holmes, despite all his quiddities. One of Sherlock's oddities is that he has a very low opinion about women, especially their intelligence. Yet, remember Irene Adler of "The Scandal in Bohemia", the brilliant, beautiful Irene who outsmarts him? He never ever mocks women's lack of brains after that episode. She forever remains THE woman for him 

Remembered all this jazz as they say, 'coz our blog today, as the title would indicate,  is going to talk about two unusual women. Well, the contemporary  AI (r)evolution is literally questioning what it is to be a human being. Allow me to say that since the 1960's, there was this great researcher whose take on Darwinian notions and whose 're-search' on/of chimpanzees literally re-wrote what is to be human(e).

I am anyways a Jane-ian. Well, I love Jane Austen whose (to use a Shashi Tharoor-ism) semiquincentennial, that is to say, two hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary we are celebrating this year. Jane Goodall is another Jane I highly respect.

 For six decades, this British primatologist studied the big ape in Tanzania. She proved that chimpanzees, gorillas have a complex intelligence, deep emotions and extremely interesting social structures, all the aspects which supposedly advanced human beings boast about as their "progress", unlike 'animals' disdainfully dismissed.

Currently, it is very fashionable to be a conservationist, and to be environmentally conscientious. We have actresses bursting in to tears publically over the plight et al of the planet! Jane Goodall literally lived these concepts for more than six decades. True to her surname, she proved that ''big or small/bright or dull/ play all a role full/ in evolution's rule''.

The other woman i would like to discuss in our blog today may not have this grand a stature for sure. After all, she was just an actress from the Marathi and Hindi film industry. 

She died of old age yesterday. Yes, I am referring to Sandhya, famous for her films such as 'Amar Bhoopali', 'Pinjara', 'Zanak Zanak payal baje', 'Navrang', and many more that mirror her skill as a danseuse. The way her body gyrated in the (mostly Vasant Desai) loveliest songs in such films made one almost think that instead of bones, she had elastic that never snapped however much stretched whichever way.

The impossible dance postures she attempted were, moreover,  gracefully fluid and lyrically beautiful so much so that school gatherings to inter-college/university events, the budding dancers would continue to do a Sandhya dance year after year, decade after decade. 

In brief, I would like to assert that her stylised dances and acting added to the expressionist aspects  of V. Shantaram's filmography in unique ways. She enriched the film industry through her own special rhythm. Hence this tribute! 

Pratima@ May their souls rest in peace!

Truly Touristy

 Recently was celebrated the World Tourism Day.  Tourism is truly the trade of the twenty-first century. There are countries whose major source of income is tourism, in addition to the immigrants who make their country of adoption richer by providing better and/or more service at remarkably lower wages. 

Right now let us concentrate more on the truly touristy trade, and less on the emigrants because that discussion leads to the inevitable identity issues. These days, it is undeniable that Indians travel tremendously. They tour mostly the "phoren", though actually India itself has all possible varieties, natural wonders and national parks, religious corridors, architectural beauties. You name it, and we have it. 

In addition, the tourist who visits India is greeted with all the hullabuloo typical of the chaos every which way overflowing in abundance. The truly touristy feel is rooted in that unique 'method in madness' that terribly touristy places in india comprise.

May be, hence I feel rather strongly that certain places cannot be, and should not be touristy. The Chardham Yatra full of the majesty and grandeur of the Himalayas cannot be tourist spots of the 'done that, been there" variety.  The ever winding trek of Yamunotri cannot be a pleasure trip, for instance. Nor is Kedarnath a family trip wherein six months old babies accompany rather ambitious and absolutely fool parents! 

The very vibe at Gangotri, Yamunotri and Kedarnath cannot jell with typical touristy trends. These are not LTC driven places of fun- and reel-making.  The Kedarnath temple, who could have built it, and how? Such spiritual wonders are these places, not producers of hillocks of garbage of all types

If human vanity and foolish/foolhardy behaviour of the tourists, matched with the avaricious, greedy, rude, corrupt and unruly locals, and (mis)management do not get streamlined, tragedies much worse than the 2013 floods are imminent, and on a much, much larger scale.

Tourists, in brief, must observe the decorum and dignity of the destination, while locals, who indeed depend on tourism, should not fleece them every which way. Otherwise, the internet, its AI insistence on "ask me", its Skype types do allow you to be a couch potato who can experience online all sorts  fun in 4-D, 5-D versions!

Pratima@ Tourism should lead to elation and/or enjoyment, and not to either exploitation or excesses. An example can be the natural habitats of wild animals in India. They are not open air zoos! The forests belong to them. Discretion, in brief, is the key to tourism, too!

Indeed a unique day!

 October 2 this year! Indeed a unique day! On this day, our nation celebrates the birth anniversary of the most unassuming but truly tall leader ever, Lal Bahadur Shastri ji; while the world over gets celebrated the birth anniversary of Gandhiji. This year, on October 2, the RSS centenary year has reached its fruition, I suppose, though the formal date the organisation was established is September 27, 1925. In addition, on October 2 this year , we celebrate Dasara as well. 

 In this short piece, let us unravel what these occasions signify in the public sphere and in the private space. Let us begin with the political, next the social, and finally the religious/civilisational categories.

In my opinion, in the public space, Shastriji, the "hail, farmers; hail, soldiers" man stands for probity and integrity. Unbelievable, but absolutely true, anecdotes about his honesty are public knowledge. 

What does he signify in the private space? In my opinion, it is his humility and gentleness. Yet he was a brave person who stood up to all sorts of mockeries and wickednesses consciously planted in his way. A true statesman, very rare amongst politicians who mostly are power magnets! 

In the public sphere, Gandhiji would symbolise non-violence and the uncanny ability to mobilise mass support through moral ideas. In the private space, it is his ability to accept his own mistakes is what I find appealing. 

He seems to treat life as work in progress. Often, after a blunder, he collects the pieces together to form a new and a better mosaic of the self. Rather, I would say, like the Japanese art of kintsugi alias kintsukuroi which consists of piecing together broken heirloom vases, urns with an inlay of gold varnish, thus creating in the process a beautiful work of art, in fact, much better than the earlier valuable pottery pieces. 

In the public arena, the RSS may signify all sorts of ideologies to all sorts of people. In fact, it may very well be said of the organisation that there are absolutely contradictory, mutually exclusive/explosive opinions about the organisation. 

In my opinion, however, at least in my private sphere, the RSS stands for dedicated, selfless work that does not crave publicity. Silently but surely, the RSS people perform wonders. Let me quote two examples. When the Malin tragedy happened, the core Sangha people were the first to arrive and the last to leave there, and ready for any, literally any, duty. So it was during the COVID era. The RSS helped curb the super spread of COVID in Dharavi, and so much that an arch critic like Barkha Dutt eulogised, highly praised their contribution. 

Worthy of emulation are the RSS processions as well.  May be, that is because the Sangh processions on the Dasara day celebrate in a disciplined organised way the core Indic values, the civilisational principles.

 In the public sector, the Dasara may mean a holiday, such processions that celebrate the culmination of the "navratra", the return of Rama to Ayodhya, the boon granted by Kubera to King Raghu and Sage Kausts, the end of Pandavas' 'vanvaas', their unjust banishment, and so on. 

What do these myths and the public burning of the Ravana mean in the private space? I suppose, it would be recognising the a-sur, the a-vidya, the a-lakshmi within. In Sanskrit, the prefix 'a-' means negation. The a-surs in my life could be people who find the speck of dust, the mote in my eye, while consciously ignoring the beam in their own or their favourites' eye(s). Dasara means 're-cognising' such people, and cutting them to Size Zero in my reality. 

The a-vidya i must get rid of can be getting upset due to such vicious people and their activities, allowing them in derailing my 'dream' journey, worrying over their conscious nastiness, et al. 

The a-lakshmi can be wasting (wo)man hours through ignoring my health, for instance. Luckily, I am not addicted to the social media. Otherwise, the social media can be the worst cause of a-lakshmi, for instance. 

Dasara, in brief, is the 'haran', the dissolution or destruction of not only ten, 'dash', but as many as is possible of the 'a-' within!

Pratima@ The public is private, and the private could cleanse the public. 

Old is gold!

 Those were charmed days, the last three years of the twentieth century, and the first three years  of the new millenium. Along with my doctoral studies, I was a rookie journalist  with such established newspapers as 'The New Indian Express', ' The Hindu' and the 'Newstime' of the Eenadu group. And, oh, yes, I had gotten the assignments sheerly on the basis of my writerly merit, in a place where I knew none! Even when I was a freelancer, I used to write at least one article literally every day for the Features' Desk. 

As a young woman, it was quite a high that I was the go-to person when it came to many, many themes. One of my regular duties was to review films, film festivals, et al. It was thus that I saw him at a premier of one of his films, most probably, his last, under his Navketan Banners. 

At eighty plus, he was his own usual  jaunty self, dressed impeccably, on his Sunday best behaviour. After the show, he was ready for a presseur. As fresh as a daisy. The film, well, he had tried his level best, but a new, different kind of filmography for a totally different kind of audience was the demand and command of the hour. Literally, there was a cultural shift. 

He had not changed though. The debonair unflapped hero of the yesteryears. Dev Anand. Honestly, during the press meet, I felt both awe and pity for him. Awe for his genuine sincerity, and pity for his failed attempt to remain relevant in times that were absolutely different from his heydays. 

Anyways, I have always admired Dev Anand for taking up different, nay, difficult challenges, such as film noirs, right at the beginning of his career. I also like his remaining true to his promise, and giving a chance to Guru Dutt whom everyone else was in a hurry to write off. I admire his attempt to keep his personal life private as proven by his dignified silence over the Suraiya connect. 

Values of/from times absolutely bygone! Now are the times when the older you are, younger you pretend to prove yourself to be, at least half your age! Unlike such supposedly young at heart oldies, Dev Anand belongs to an era when dignity mattered. Sure he started working when my parents would have just left the portals of primary school. Yet his persona appears relevant to the thoughtful even today. 

Hence this piece on him on October 1, the day dedicated to senior citizens! 

Pratima@ In an India for a long time boasting of the so-called demographic dividend, missing is such finesse, such professionalism, such commitment to a work ethic! Long live the senior citizens! Such old is indeed gold!