Harassment: A Take in Verse

 How happy can crooks be?                                     Arrant knaves like knives                                        cut a blooming tree                                                To their dismay tho', she thrives!      

   When they blast a city,                                        Terror bursting like a volcano,                             Rises she anew aglow from fire, gritty!              To fear, staunch she says 'no'! 

Why intrude, why not take a 'no'?                         Why be a vampire, life sucking?                        Why a simple truth not know?                                  In pelican ashes, is life lurking! 

Harass, harm, hound, hyena like.                   Haunt hoping certain decay n death.               Hope anew blossoms, dreams ever spike.          Of futures, crooks can't take away breath! 

Pratima@Why, thank those who harass! The crooks' wickedness awakens the dormant strength within! 

Quote of the day: "I can be changed," asserts Maya Angelou, "by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it." 

Word of the day: resilience                                    Resilience means the capacity to withstand trouble, the talent to recover from difficulties, the genius to bounce back from the impossible! 

Let us learn grammar:                                           Let Thee take care of Thine  self-reflexive verbs, and they will take care of Thy fluency! Enjoy the party, there enjoy yourself, serve yourself, and have a heck of a time! 

How is the morning?

 The title made you wonder if I am as yet properly awake (or probably not), right? It should be "Good Morning". That is what, may be, you thought? Not to worry. I am up n about, long time back, ready to 'arise n shine' as they say. 

No, the title is not a take on that "how is the josh?" With 'Dhurndhanr' blasting the cinema halls, that phrase anyways might be passe, right? To get back to our title, I was just casually trying to imagine to myself how each morning looks. 

In my opinion, every season, in fact, each day, has a unique visage as far as the morning goes. Is it any surprise that one of the most poetic "ruchas" in the "Rigveda" are about the dawn, the "Usha Sukta"? Why, one of the gravest tragedies in the whole of the world literature, "Hamlet", has a lovely description of the morning breaking on the horizon. 

Now here are the attempts by Yours Truly. In my opinion, the monsoon morning is a typical crybaby. Yes, I begin with the monsoon because it is unique to us, and it bothered us as if there were no end to it this year!

 A crybaby is a person, need not necessarily be a kid (though mentally and psychologically is one!), who is forever glum, weepy and able to disturb, if not destroy, the best thought-through plans! Very good at throwing water, literally, at everyone and everything!

The summer morning? To me, it appears like a forever irritated person whose temprature can, and does, shoot up any second! There is no knowing when the heat would be such that it can instantly scorch. The 'two minutes' smoulder types! The human version of the latest eruption of some volcano, afar or near!

And the winter mornings that we are facing these days? Well, given the smog smothering the city horizons, tough to wax senti, right? As for me, a winter morning looks like a quietly smiling, mature, slightly withered,  a bit wrinkled face of a wise woman. 

Like Aai's, or even Papa's, in the winter of their innings! Greying hair, wispy, slightly thin, a little tousled. Yet face calm. Completely quiet and totally content! One of the most beautiful sights, right?

At times though, one could even say, the winter morning, through the smog blurring, appears like death itself. No, that is not because the reference to my parents reminds me of their demise, and hence of death.

About a winter morning, there is a silence, right? Given the cold (and, not to forget, our current buddy, the leopard), there is not that typical rush n wheeze of the routine city life. At times, I feel, one could hear the distant sound of stars stirring far far away in the firmament. 

In addition, there is that vague luminescence of the winter mornings, neither darkness, nor light. Something translucent. Rather misty, absolutely mysterious. Quite like death, eh?

Pratima@ No, I have not been reading about all those 'after death' experiences. Nor watching all those vivid with details videos the internet apparently overflows with. Yet that is the striking image recurring if you think about a typical city morning, right? In the meanwhile, Good Morning! Time to rise and ....

The quote of the day:                                                "The breeze in the morn has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep." Apparently, Rumi! Would not know.

Word of the day: forenoon.                                       'forenoon' is before noon, that is, the middle of the day. So, 'morning'! That is the way, I ask my students to remember the German words "Vormittag" and "Nachmittag", "Tag" being day, "mit" is middle, while "vor" is before, and "nach" is after. Very easy it is to learn languages, right? 

Let us learn grammar:                                             In this blog, I have tried to introduce a day. As for myself, however, I introduce myself. When facing an interview, I would say, 'May I introduce myself'. If I meet strangers at a marriage reception, I would say, 'let me introduce myself'.  Hey, it is getting late. The morning rush as usual. I must 'help myself' to a quickie of a breakfast. Bye, folks! 

Work is waste(d)

  The title may startle you! We are used to homilies about work as worship. Very soon though, such vacant phrases may truly be empty of any meaning, of any relevance, of any significance, and in very near future.

Forget the tech giants such as Messers  Musk-n-Gates, even the progenitor, that is, the Dad of  the AI, Hinton himself, is predicting that the AI is already so galloping that very soon, there would be no work at all for human beings! Neither hard, nor smart!

The gig economy is sure and fast giving way to the no jobs economy. No, this is not the h(e)aven Marx envisioned at the purely poetic end of his great 'Manifesto'. Mind you, the Linked In types may assure you that alternative job markets would emerge. That is not true either. Chat bots, and AI agents, would soon be  better masters of 'prompt'ing, at communicating faultlessly, and, however, tough the terrain could be. 

No professions are immune from the invasion, whether creative or tough, in brief, neither teaching, nor writing, why, not even surgery! The likes of the Nvidia's, the techno-financial giants of the world are uniting to  pour zillions in to the ever guzzling gullets of the industry for making the AI efficient n better by the day, whatever be the effects enviornment-wise either! No Lehmann-Sachs kind of bubble this seems to be to burst either! 

Mind you, as an entity, as a concept, work is a complex politico-economic-socio-psychological phenomenon. If there is no work, no wages either, right? Sure, the government (it would then indeed be truly big brotherly!) might help out with welfare measures. 

But how much and to how many? And how long? How to grade the quality of either any profession or the work carried out, if there is no work at all for human beings? And, mind you, all along, the machines would be getting smarter and brighter! Some brave new world!

Forget the finance dominated/determined issues about the functioning of the market driven economy! Well, much worse socio-psychological issues are at stake! Work is never mere efficiency, money, schedule, et al. Work is purpose, too. 

If there is no such motive, what would empty minds do, but be devil's workshop?!? Can there be any family of such (hopefully, metaphorically) blood suckers? Remember, during the COVID, when everybody had to be cooped up within the four walls, the oh-so-lovin family got in to each other's hairs, plural intended! 

Imagine the society of such dracula's and zombies, as if we do not have enough of these already! All the vulnerables, be it babies, the elderly, the women, the disabled would be at the receiving end! And, oh, ya, all the castes, ethnicities, religions would face the same fate. Class, anyways, would not exist, except the three or four conglomerates owned by two or three capitalist buddies!

Yes, this dystopia is for real. So the solution? Bond deeply and truly with those who you genuinely care for! When you are with those you love, any hell can be THE heaven!

Pratima@ Wonder what would be the future of our demagaugic, eh, demographic dividend, gutka guzzling, et al, ready for every harassment of any innocent if somebody throws at them a few rupees in return!?!

Word of the day: It is a phrase, actually. Cassandra cries.                                               'Cassandra cries' refers to genuine prognosis to which none pays any attention. The "nach kaschit shrunoti maam" frustration of Sage Ved Vyasa! Cassandra was a prophetess who could foretell the future exactly, to the 't'. Why, she had even warned about the Trojan horse in the 'Iliad'. None believed her, though!

Quote of the day:                                                        "Quality is great," says Henry Ford, if one goes on "doing it right even when no one is looking." 

Let us (continue to) learn grammar:                     As times are gonna be tough, let us so 'dress ourselves' that we may 'help ourselves' to feel better!                                                                          If the object of the verb is different, the meaning changes. Notice the difference between "The mother bathed the baby" and "he washed himself", or even "bathed himself", hopefully, at least sometimes! 

Slang is bang...

 Yes, slang is bang n on, but only for the in-group; the Gen Z, the Gen Alpha (sheer luck for us, boomer n beyond, I suppose, that the Gen Beta cannot talk, born as they are in 2025), et al, for instance. 

Oh, yup, no longer is it the mobile specific "gr8" types. The "LOL" and "lmao" are passe, too! Don't ya believe me? K! Tell me the meaning of the following: "knuckered! Need rôle!" " Hwaiting!" Well, in simple, sensible, straightforward English, this exchange means, "I am very tired. I need a hangout." "Good luck! Keep going." !!! 

Well, like these youth n full types, their mobiles are fool, too! The "role" in the exchange above has the circonflex cap on the word final 'e'. Tough to type for the pre-Corona Gen of mobiles! 

Slang is always thus, understood by a specific group. This group is mostly the young one(s). There is a tremendous informality about this non-standard usage. This casual lingo is more on the go than even its users. That is to say, it constantly shifts and changes. 

Wanna a few staggering e.g's? "No cap"  has nothing to do with Aesop's monkeys or the climate wise headgear. It means,"not lying"! Nice it is to meet Nasmma coz she is always "spilling the tea". Does that mean Madam is a careless housewife? Nope! It just means that Ma'am gases and gases. No stomach upset, please! The awful odour is that of her constant gossiping! 

''I am not beat on", that is, not excited about either meeting her or using the social media types such as the insta or the fb! She is extra! That does not mean, Ma'am works in the bhojpuri fillums. It just means, she is an annoyance, a bother. 

Yup, "slang slays" ! Means "slang is very good". Who cares about butchering the standard usage! The slang-walla users care for the informal, the casual, the intimate in-group feel. Slang gives a feel of a unique, a special selfhood. In advt's, it may  be used for flooding the market with its unusual uniqueness, right? New modes of sales pitch in new eras, right?

 Pratima @Any slang is fine so long as it does not hinder communication. Anyways, the purists do accept slang as regular usage sooner, than later!

Quote of the day:                                                        Says Ambrose Bierce,"Slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage carts on the way to the dump." 

Word of the day:                                                     "Mah bad, mah bad! Chill. Why be a big mad?" These oft used words, rather expressions, mean "my mistake, my mistake, take it cool, why be so angry?"! This latest gen slang can ASAP be the headache of other generations!!!

Let us learn grammar:                                             Let us continue with the self-reflexive verbs this week. "Do not hence absent yourself/yourselves from the blog. Thus can you easily avail yourself/yourselves from decent usage of English."                                   The structure is I/myself, you/yourself, you/yourselves, she/herself, he/himself, we/ourselves, they/themselves.                 

The Sugar Coated Pill?

 Remember, when as a child, the Doctor Uncle, that is, the family doctor, an institution almost extinct now, would initially give the tantrum throwing kid peppermint as tablets? The test used to be very tangy, almost like medicine but tasty enough to make the kid temporarily at least forget the tooth ache or the fever!

Yes, medicines have to have such psychological benefits for the patient to recover fast so much so that kids often want the tonsillitis operation as it offers loads and loads of ice cream as the post operative care!

In such a context, let us discuss the alternative medicine mode. No, let us not get in to the allopathic versus ayurvedic debate. Yes, both have side effects. Yes, for a quickie of a relief, nothing like the allopathic medicine, while the ayurvedic may cure the disease at the root.

Both pathies, however, would/might dismiss homeopathy as sugar coated pills! How about reiki? These days, the internet is flooded with alternative medicines such as the 'ashtchakra' therapy, the 'kundalini' therapy, the 'akashik' therapy, the 'past birth', the 'sujyok', the 'bara kshar', the 'flower', and so on, and so on therapies. 

Well, I would not know their relevance. I do, however, feel that acupressure does work. Well, during the Corona Period, the Mangeshkar Hospital, where most all doctors are M.D's, had floated for their staff and patients a seven stage acupressure mode. Well, our feet and palms do have all possible nerve endings. Such acupressure points do minimise pain, and add to the redemptive effect. Unlike the acupuncture needles, there is no pain either.

Personally, I am of the opinion that any combo, acupressure and allopathy, for instance should make the patient feel hopeful that (s)he would get well soon. It is that hope that cures real fast, whichever be the pathy, right? 

Better still is the communication by the doctor. If the doctor manages to make the patient feel relaxed, comfortable and confident, the patient gets well soon. It does not mean trying to baby-talk with an adult. These days, however, machines do more of the noise than the actual consult! Has the Fourth Revolution already encroached this most intimate relationship? Talk of the AI days!

 Word of the day: Placebo.                                         A placebo is a medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit to the patient rather than for any physiological  or therapeutic effect. It may not be used as a test case during the trials of new drugs or their side effects. Often, it may humour or placate the patient.

Quote of the day:                                                    "Let us strive for the impossible. Remember the great achievements throughout history have been the conquest of what seemed the impossible." So said Charlie Chaplin. It applies so very well to getting well soon! 

Let us learn grammar:                                          This week, let us deal with self-reflexive verbs. Unlike any other European languages, be it French, German or Spanish, luckily English has very few of these. They matter though. A self-reflexive verb has an object which refers back to the subject. 

Look at the following examples for further clarity. "I enjoyed myself at the get-together". "The kids were enjoying themselves  hugely during the birthday party." "Hope you are enjoying yourself/yourselves this evening." The moment you say/write, "It is your birthday today. Today evening, enjoy", it is clear your English is not enjoying itself!!! 

The Goddess of Justice is not at all blind

 Yes, I am uploading this blog a little late. Well, am a little unwell. That is okay though. Better late than never, right? Recently, to be precise, on December 3, was celebrated the Indian National Lawyers', or rather the Advocates', Day. 

The day is celebrated to insist on the ethics of the profession. A huge demand it may look like as, apparently, in the imaginary of the common perception, lawyers are all that is wicked, manipulative and money-minded.

Actually, the justice system in India is skewed because of sheer statistics. The number of cases pending in the court is  almost in millions. Many amongst them are undertrials who thus spend a lifetime in the impossible conditions of the (indian) jails without even/ever being tried.

 In other words, "tarikh pe tarikh", 'date after date' is not merely a filmy dialogue. Often are blamed the judges' colonial set of holidays for such an unforgivable delay as 'justice delayed is justice denied'.

Yet I would like to insist that the Goddess of Justice, who now speaks in the local Indian languages as well, is not blind at all. She is impartial. It has been proven in so many seminal cases which have altered the very destiny of India, beginning with the famous Keshavananda Bharati case, the Shah Bano Case, the Ayodhya Ram Janma Bhoomi case, to give a few salient examples.

As for corruption or lack of ethics in the judicial system, the sad truth is, no other field of public and/or private life is free of such corrosion. Instead of, hence, accusing the supreme court chief justices of being lackeys of the central government, especially after retirement, why not think positively that their vast knowledge is being put to positive use that would be good for the entire polity?

  Such was the opinion of the ex-CJI Chandrachud, too, who was also viciously hounded because the P.M. attended the Ganesh Poojan at his official residence! Secularism seems to assume weird avataars according to convenience!

Pratima@ The judiciary is defined as the branch of government that interprets laws, settles disputes, and administers justice. This system of courts serves as the guardian of the constitution and fundamental rights, with a structure that is hierarchical, beginning from the Lower to the Supreme Court. 

The quote of the day:                                              In the much anthologised 'seven ages of man', Shakespeare mocks the corrupt 'justice' (actually, in Shakespeare-an parlance, it need not mean only the judge, though) as follows:                                                "And then the justice,/ In fair round belly with good capon lined,/ With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,/ Full of wise saws and modern instances;/And so he plays his part."

The word of the day: Lawyer versus advocate.                                                                   A lawyer, according to the technical definition, has a law degree, while an advocate is a lawyer, licensed to represent clients in court by passing a Bar exam, and by registering with the Bar Council. In other words, all advocates are lawyers. Yet all lawyers need not be advocates. Some lawyers may only provide legal advice, and work outside of court. 

Let us learn grammar:                                            These days, it is very fashionable to dismiss grammar in the name of so-called communication. Yes, communication does matter, but communication, as we hope to prove, stands on the firm footing of grammar as it is, otherwise, wobbly and shaky. 

To give an ancient (in both the senses, that is from the olden days, and, aged, as it has been repeated generations long) example, in English, the subject/the doer and the object/on whom the action takes place have their given, structured placement in an English sentence. Hence it has to be "Rama killed Ravana", though certain interpretations may question such (in)justice!

More about  grammar as we meet day after day. 

Truth lies in actually reading

 They say the proof of the pudding is in tasting it, in actually eating it,  right? Our title takes after that famous phrase, and argues that we understand/know the  truth of the matter only when we read the actual documents. 

Why all this jazz? Is that your query? Well, Dear Reader, do you remember two words that never cease to raise temperature to impossible heights in India? Yes, they are "secular" and "socialist." 

As you probably  know, these two words were not there in the original Preamble to the Constitution. They were introduced during the Emergency. As this year, 2025, happens to be the fiftieth year of those turbulent times, the discussion regarding dropping these two shot up. 

Well, if you were to look up the entire debate regarding these two words during the actual framing of the constitution, you would know that K. T. Shah, himself an alumnus of the London School of Economics, and other major institutions in England, was strongly in favour of using these two words. 

Dr. Ambedkar's opinion of the term socialist was that if it is included, it would restrict, in fact, take away, the right of the people to decide which type of societal construction they would like. 

There was no reference at all to 'secular'. Unfortunately, camps or their leaders do not know such facts. Busy with pushing their agenda, they may not bother to look up the original as the blame game is important to  many hate mongers.

Extremely sorry is such state of affairs. Instead of deifying, and thus negating their truth, it is necessary to live the idea(l)s of all thinkers. Only then can past be a guide to present, and, especially to future, right? High decibels lead only to cacophony, but not either to wisdom or to truth!

Pratima@ Partisan screeches do nothing but belittle the camp, much worse, an interesting  idea!

Quote of the idea:                                                "sapere aude", said Kant. It means 'dare to know', 'dare to be wise'.

Word of the day: preamble.                                  '  A Preamble means introduction or preface. Mostly, it succinctly summarises the entire document.