The Death of Innocence

 This year, November 14 was dedicated absolutely to the Bihar election results. Delhi to gulley, the various ramifications of the result, immediate as well as long-term, were the themes around which discussions and debates developed. Given such ambience, it was but normal that neither the birth centenary of Pandit Nehru nor the death centenary of Hegel got much mention. 

Nehruji's birth centenary gets celebrated as the 'children's day'. One would like to argue that the tsunami of discussions centered around the election results and politics, Indians'  favourite most obsession, washed away that tiny island. 

Why is such a hijacking possible at all? Well, my submission is that there is hardly any innocence left at all. Naïveté, that primitive stage of innocence, is almost invisible. Innocence is an entity that is marked by its absence currently. 

Do not you believe me? Okay, let us begin with children. With mobiles in their tiny palms and the politics of reality inscribed there in the forms of wily and violent comics, innocence and naïveté wither away faster than the state in the Marxist ideology. 

A little older, what do children watch? Horribly vicious serials wherein family relationships are mere politicking in the worst possible way! Or the alternative is the 'Big Boss' types which teach hatred, malice, envy, jealousy masqueraded as normalcy! 

Can innocence at all bloom in such a barren mindscape? Much worse are the  dance competitions for children. A kid of five or six gyrates to the vulgarest songs. The young body is thus  sexualised beyond belief. What can such child pornography have to do with innocence? 

Personally, I am absolutely against introducing dramatics or dance in to the lives of children till they grow up to be ten. Why so? Is that your question? Well, when you thus consciously teach a child to falsely feel an emotion, imitate through gestures a false feeling, such 'acting' breeds a false consciousness. You are training your own kid to pretend! Whither(ed)  innocence?!? 

The sizzling to this tasteless broth is the constant competitive fierceness fast (in all senses of the term) bred amongst kids. Within the familial space, vicious and cruel, especially due to its subtle proliferation, is its contamination which has a super fast spread everywhere, in schools, on the playground, for instance. Eternally, parents, highly ambitious, are in to such one-up-manship. As a result, children are in to very many activities taken up not for joy but to prove superiority of the parent's (mostly  mother's, not to foget 'her' maternal family) upbringing. 

Wither naïveté in such a scénario? Absolutely impossible is innocence because, by definition, innocence is freedom from any guilt. Well, guilt is the hallmark for childhood activities today, be it family, be it recreation, be it education. The dirge for the lost innocence is tough to sing. Hence this note of condolence for an era long lost wherein a child, not pushed, instead allowed to be innocent, was not a performing poppet!

Pratima@Nuclear and/or single parent family would not alone be the culprit, I suppose. Whatever be the causes, the resulting knowing cynicism on the perenially pretending young faces is pathetic!

Quote of the day:                                                      "I have always been fascinated," argued Clint Eastwood, "with the stealing of innocence. It is the most heinous crime, and certainly a capital crime, if there is any." 

Word of the day: sanctimonious.                          The word refers to pretending to be superior to others by adding a moral veneer to lowly, despicable motives.

Kind is as kind does

The social media need not always be bad. It was on a WhatsApp group that I got to know of this World Kindness Day. Given the kind of body bags being repeatedly reported across the world, this word 'kind' should surely rule the roost. 

The first kindest persons we meet in this cruel world are parents. They never care for their convenience, comfort, or career. Such is their love that we are the very centers of their universe. Their entire being revolves around us. It is hence very cruel to ill-treat them in their old age. 

Like parents, teachers, too, care for our growth, well-being and development. Truly, kind, generous and affectionate they are, unlike others who may use us and throw us away like a used paper napkin. 

Our friends are an asset precisely because they are kind, right? At times, the very ambience can be kind. Want proof? Right now, India and Shri Lanka are jointly holding a world visually impaired women's cricket jamboree in which six countries are participating.

Such kindness in action is the need of the hour. Kindness betters the world, often inhuman and cruel. Hence the need for kind activities that make it a better place. Let us be kind, generous and full of consideration for each other, and, most importantly, let us be kind to ourselves.  If thus you receive kindness, you would be kindness incarnate, sure to make the world a place truly worthy and genuinely kind. Long live kindness!

Pratima@Animals are in fact kinder than most human beings. Better hence to say that kindness makes human beings less devilish, and more divine!

Quote of the day: "Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see, " says Mark Twain

Word of the day: altruistic.                                    This adjective refers to a kind person who looks after the well-being of others. Mother Teresa was an altruistic person, right? 

Murderous Memes

 The social media has its own contours such as memes and stickers. Memes have been a rage for quite some time. Some five years ago, when they were just bursting on the internet horizon, one of my PG students chose to write her term paper on memes. 

Of course, I encouraged her. Yet it was rather a shocker for me that she could 'describe' them ('very kindly' - in her barely suppressed opinion-ated air - for me!). She could not, however, 'analyse' them. I wanted her to explore the communication strategies therein  which, in my opinion, are both verbal and visual. 

That is that. Let me not get in to theory here, hated as much as intellectualism currently. Ah, yes, these days the sibling of memes, that is, stickers rule the social media empire. Even then, the fascination for memes is yet not over though.

An example or two to prove my point. We all know the sad saga of the reportage of Dharmendra's 'demise'. It must be hurtful to his immediate family. For the netizens though, it was a field day to freak out. 

One meme had the typical 'Garam Dharam' grimace and lingo, namely, "Kutton! Zinda hun. TRP ke chakkar pe muze hr ghante marwana band kro" which can loosely be translated as "Curs! I am alive and kickin. Stop murdering me by the hour for the sake of the TRP"!

The one that did the most rounds was that famous " tank" scene from " Sholay" with the equally well-known caption " Gaw walon, marna cancelled!" which can loosely be translated as " Hey, folks! I have cancelled (my resolve) to die!" In the foreground is a pic of an aged Dharmendra. 

These are witty takes in a way on that impossible situation. Really 'wicked' was the sense of humour of a video. It showed an equally aged Jitendra who suffered a fall in some other function. It was an absolutely crappy crop which collated both these unfortunate events with a giggly "Dharam paaji ke chakkar me/aj Jitendra paji chale jate" which can be roughly translated as "all that hullaballo over Bro Dharam today would have claimed Bro Jitendra."

Nutty, nasty, notorious. Thank goodness, I have not as yet seen the "Dharam paaji ki tarikh pe tarikh!" Hema Malini would drag the person to court, I suppose! Hey, like every other person under the sun, I, too, dearly love a laugh. I am not being a spoilsport. Yet in my scheme of things, silly, cheap laughter, especially at something as grim as imminent death cannot be a grin! Amen! 

Pratima@A titter cannot tatter decency, right? A smile is at least a mile away from cruelty, meanness, and downright goofy madness! 

Quote of the day:                                                     "Humour is the best way," maintains Mary Ann Shaffer, "to make the unbearable bearable." 

Word of the day: frivolous.                                   'Frivolous' means without much sense or seriousness, rather silly. The memes at the cost of Dharmendra's 'declared' demise are absolutely frivolous.

Couples

 November 11 is unique. It is 11/11. On 11/11 at 11.11, I got a bright spark. Why not write an acrostic cum limerick on couples, a relationship as quirky as the date! So here we go. 

Couples constantly bicker n fight.                        Oh, names each other call at its height.               Usual causes lend a fight its might.                  Painful swipes at the other that bite!               Love at the end is but sorry n slight.                Each home, every family repeats the plight!  Save the togetherness that better be bright! 

Pratima@A couple is yet another relationship of the 'cannot live with you but cannot leave you' variety, right?

Quote of the day:                                                      A couple should be "a single soul inhabiting two bodies", the classic definition of love according to Aristotle.

Word of the day: nuptials.                                 Nuptials refer to the wedding ceremony. It is a formal term for the event itself and its celebrations on that day.

On Education

 Francis Bacon was one of the great Renaissance thinkers. Bacon's "Essays" provide the pithiest, most succinct and yet in depth analysis of any and every theme he explored. His titles used to be "Of Love", "Of Learning", "Of Friendship", and so on. Closer to our times, it is Khaleel Gibran who attempted similar feats.

Following in the footprints of these giants, let us today try and explore education. Our title, however, would be "On education" as we cannot pretend to be definitive like Bacon, and others.  The occasion, incidentally, is the birth anniversary  of Abdul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of independent India. 

Yes, education is the greatest gift. Why so? Well, education opens up a student's mind. Basically, it is a values-oriented process that inculcates in the learner the way(s), the mode(a), the method(a) of grasping, understanding, processing any fact, every idea. It is the road which leads the learner towards fulfilment, of which the monetary satisfaction is a mere, though impotant, part. 

Now in the wake of the NEP, hands on education as well as the use of the mother tongue as the medium of education till the primary stage, are emphasised.  Yet another idea floating around is the concept of teacher as facilitator. All such refractions are good, great, most acceptable.

Yet it is necessary to point out a few canards, too, as they block the flow of learning. Let us list them. To begin with, it IS very much necessary to assert that unless the core subject, the hard skills, are learnt, no use of the very many soft skills, half-heartedly 'finished' off for a credit or two! 

Credits cannot control  learning. Period! At the college level, for example, a one credit course on the 'Vedas' or 'Arthashastra' or 'Fundamentals of Research', or 'Intellectual Property Rights,'  et al, serve the purpose of 'finishing off' the syllabus, of passing the subject as per the question paper loosely leaked! Freaking out in various direct or subtle ways cannot be studies, right?

First comes the knowledge as defined by the syllabi and curricula, which sure should be reality oriented as well. But industry needs, which change constantly, MUST not dictate the terms and conditions. 

Education, it must be remembered, IS the process of learning how to learn which is needed lifelong. As the Chinese proverb goes, students must learn how to fish; they should not be served the fish ready made. Education cannot be corporate career preparedness.

Practical relevance sure matters. Yet the base of theory gives the mind a rigour, an ability to think critically, an openness to welcome different perspectives. No use hence dismissing paradigmatic awareness in the pursuit of practical usefulness, as is currently fashionable.

No amount of practical experience can provide the ability to negotiate newer, different concepts or ideas. Otherwise, "jugad" becomes the rule, and half baked information from all sorts of (even wrong) sources is confused with knowledge.

If students are to be wise, they must attend lectures, a practice which also inculcates very many study 'skills', extremely necessary for a productive life, as well as values such as togetherness, discipline, empathy, et al. 

Sure, teachers must make learning enjoyable. Yet, under the guise of facilitation, learning cannot be reduced to "entertainment, entertainment, entertainment". A good academic 'job' cannot be mere fat pay cheques for doing everything else except actually  conducting lectures which help students learn! 

There is always a huge hue and cry that India does not produce Nobel prize winners for which dedication beyond immediate gains, sincere genuine (not necessarily merely 'smart') work, disciplined thinking, commitment are necessary. Invention IS ninety nine percent hard work, is the Edison assertion, often forgotten in the pursuit of glitzy, vacant, shallow show-off!

Education etymologically originates from "educare" which means to lead from the known to the unknown. Hence, silly simplification, empty anti-intellectualism, time pass "jugad" as success cannot replace education that is truly creative, right? After all, in the final analysis, learning is learning IS learning.

Pratima@Let us learn how to learn!

Quote of the day:                                                      "The most beautiful thing about education is that nobody can take it away from you"!

Word of the day:                                                      "erudite" which means the person has great knowledge and learning. All the Nobel Prize winners are erudite, for instance.

The Mamdani Mania

Truly famous is Thomas Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge" as it often is a to-do book on the list of every literature enthusiast, the Eng Lit students included, for whom its sheen may wither a little as it is most often a textbook! 

These days, however, another mayor is the talk of the town, and not only of the one he would soon start representing. Yes, let us talk of Zohran Mamdani. Unique indeed was his election campaign, highly vocal, absolutely communicative, and reaching out to the very many rejects of the glitz-n-glamour that is New York. The videos are electrifying even in retrospect. May be, the woman power, his mother and his wife, both in to image making, were responsible for it.

This democrat-socialist sure has ruffled many a feather. Want an example? Barack Obama, whose trajectory Mamdani roughly replicates, has not said a word about his victory, right? As for Trump, whom he challenged to "turn the volume up", he is being presented as the  very nemesis. 

Well, the Republicans seem to have taken his advice rather seriously. Questions are being raised about his naturalisation process. As a result, his very citizenship is under scanner. Much more viable is the danger of Elise Stefanik winning the gubernatorial race. She then gets the legal rights to remove Mamdani under some 'trump'ed up charge, not to forget the threat regarding 'federal funds' looming large.

Mamdani, in his early thirties, an erstwhile rapper, may appear to be continuing the 'Gen Z uprising' motif that rattled the South-Asian (his background referral actually) countries,  Bangla Desh and Nepal. Many in the know argue that the 'invisible hand' behind the scene was America! Ironic, right, the U.S. being hoisted in its own petard? 

The 'infidel not at the door, but in the city' propaganda does not really hold water, simply because Mamdani would not be the typical rabid jihadi terrorist. His father is a Harvard academic whose book on colonisation and Africa is published by the Princeton University Press. His Harvard educated mother, Padma Vibhushan Mira Nair, is an acclaimed film maker. 

Why the suspicions against him then?Because of his 'intifada' proclivities?   Does he rouse suspicions of the Deep State agency? Is his overt activism going to hurtle the Kejriwal way as Uday Nirgudkar says? Is it the 'Sadiq Khan of London, now Zohran Mamdani of New York' fear, especially given the 'grooming gang' kind of menace that is threatening England? 

In my opinion, it is his unnecessary overreach that  is worrisome. He is just a mayor, sure of New York, but even then not responsible for America's foreign policies, right? Why should he, given his responsible position, loosely dabble in international politics? Why dare Netanyahu to come to New York and threaten that he would be immediately  arrested?!? Why be so obviously anti-semitic, given the 'salad bowl' image of New York? Why the uncalled for remarks against the Indian P.M.? Absolutely unnecessary, right?

Actually, he is going to have a tough time, given his electoral promises. No, not because the American dream, based on hard work, is not a real fit for freebies. Actually, 'it is the money, honey'! If he really wanted to make a drastic change, cosmetic surgeries such as an all-women council, would not help. Populism may win votes but, unless promises are delivered fast, leads to total disillusionment and the feel of being betrayed, which is the real curse!

Pratima@ When a new star rises, the star dust should stick, a very basic hope, right? 

Quote of the day:                                                      "What goes up, must come down." Mania causes people (with bipolar illness) to climb higher and higher, and then," says Troy Steven, " crash like a wave rolling in to shore."

Word of the day: monomania.                              It is made of the prefix 'mono' and the base or the root 'mania'. As 'mono' means one, this 'mania' refers to a compulsive, impulsive obsession with a single cause! 

Unsung... Invisible... Overlooked

 As children, we have all read the story of the ugly duckling, ridiculed, harassed, sneered at for being a swan! Okay it is in fairy tales. In real life, it takes gigantic courage to be talented, to be a prodigy, nay, could even be a genius, underrated by the status quo which honours others not even sub par.

Let us today look at two examples. One of them is a tragedy. Better always to begin with the bad so that we can appreciate the scent of success the good grudgingly may be allowed!

Yes, let us talk of a hyper talented music director. Son of a tabla player, he was excellent at percussion instruments, be it tabla, dholak or pakhawaj. Why, before he came to the city of dreams to work at his niche, he was gifted a royal sabre in honour of his superb abilities. 

In Bombay, however, he would not find work! For eight years, he was an assistant with a salary of mere hundred rupees. His music direction was so superb that "Mirza Galib" had a special show in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Prime Minister praised it.

Yet work never came his way! At last, he was the chosen one for ''Pakeezah". The film trailed so long due to causes beyond his control that he died in penury almost a decade earlier. 

Yes, we are talking of Ghulam Mohammed who died without, forget medicines, food. The only saving grace in this sad scenario is that Pran refused to accept his award because the year  ''Pakeezah" was released, despite its superb music, the much deserved award went to another! Some recognition at last, though post humous!

Now let us look at the rather happy ending. The Indian Women's Team won the World Cup recently. The captain bowed to him, and the euphoria included him in to recognition long long long overdue. Yes, we are referring to Amol Muzumdar. Records at the Ranaji level, wonderful at his game, excellent batsman. Yet success at last came his way almost three decades later, at least as a wonderful coach, much appreciated by his team.

Why this phenomenon of the 'unsung hero'? Why is talent overlooked, often when the most ordinary is hailed? For being in the wrong place at the wrong time? For being too straightforward? For not cozying up to those in power positions? For lacking a support system who should be the cheer leaders? For unknowingly being the soft target of conspiracies galore, for thus being consciously alienated thenceforth?For rubbing the mediocrity around the wrong way just by being far far far superior?

Easy it is to say that at last everybody does have a place in the sun! What about the opportunities snatched away right under the nose though rightfully they screamed to belong to the ignored, ill-treated talent? Late justice is no justice, right? In the final analysis, whose loss is it? Sure of the individual, but much worse is the state of affairs for existing so, for blaming the victim, thus shaming its own glitzy sheen!

Quote of the day: "The last to bloom," according to Rune Lazuli," is the strongest." 

Word of the day: late-bloomer. It refers to a person whose talents or capabilities become apparent or are noticed later than is typical or common for most.