murali – Page 8 – Random Ramblings

Some thoughts on Vijayadasami and Deepawali

India is a great country and Hinduism is a great way of life. Dassehra is celebrated all over the country, yet an outsider, or for that matter even an Indian, can never relate the celebrations in one part of the country to those in another part. All gods and goddesses are propitiated in some … Continue reading “Some thoughts on Vijayadasami and Deepawali”

India is a great country and Hinduism is a great way of life. Dassehra is celebrated all over the country, yet an outsider, or for that matter even an Indian, can never relate the celebrations in one part of the country to those in another part. All gods and goddesses are propitiated in some form or the other in some part of the country, unlike Ramnavami, Krishna jayanti or Ganesh chathurti where the entire scene is hogged by one god. If Ramlila is the main event in one part it is Durga pooja in the other.

It is Dandia in the west, Ramlila in the cow belt, Durga pooja in the east and Navaratri Golu in the South.

In most parts it is a closed holiday while the kids in Chennai start their schooling on this auspicious day. I still remember trudging along with my father, to the school with a slate and a slate pencil, as a four year old. It was on a Vijayadasami day, the headmaster registered my age as 5 and admitted me in Class 1.

While I was thinking aloud , trying to understand the diferences, a north Indian friend of mine said, “forget it ya, just enjoy the celebrations! it’s all the same” ; I could ony mumble to myself , “There has got to be some differnce between ‘burning’ and ‘learning’!”

Coming to Deepawali, how can the southies celebrate homecoming of Ram to Ayodhya ? So it is Krishna’s day to mark Narakasura Samharam. All I can recall from my childhood memories on Deepawali is lots of sweets, new clothes (those days, new clothes were bought only on important occasions and Deepawali was the most important occasion) crackers and then came some great reading!!!

Every Tamil magazine, vied with one another to bring out the best annual number. Every writer considered it his privillege to get his story/article published in a popular magazine’s Deepawali Issue. The photos and paintings in Kalki were designed to be cut and framed for posterity. Till today, these issues are quite popular.

Some of the lesser known aspects of Vijayadasami and Deepawali

Where I live today, Deepwali, means, besides sweets , crackers and lights, Lakshmi pooja, amassing of wealth, mahurat trading and ritualistic gambling !! One festival, many flavours; but it is first or the original flavour that persistently lingers on.

I sign off , wishing Happy Deepawali to everybody ! Vishv ka kalyaan ho !

Listening to Grasshoppers

Read a collection of essays by Arundhati Roy Titled “Listening to Grasshoppers– Field Notes on Democracy” Arundhati Roy must be one of the most hated figures in India, as she spares nobody, be it the govt, the judiciary or the celebrities. Always ready to court controversy, she manages to be politically incorrect ,so consistently. She is against free market, … Continue reading “Listening to Grasshoppers”

Read a collection of essays by Arundhati Roy Titled “Listening to Grasshoppers– Field Notes on Democracy”

Arundhati Roy must be one of the most hated figures in India, as she spares nobody, be it the govt, the judiciary or the celebrities. Always ready to court controversy, she manages to be politically incorrect ,so consistently. She is against free market, against US brand of democracy; and she speaks for naxals, for Afsal Guru and Geelani, people considered the enemies of the state. She doesn’t get much support from the media as well. Arnab Goswamy, in one of the debates on “Kashmir issue”, fired an unprovoked salvo, “Arundahthi Roy and Bharat Bhushan ! are you listening ? we have not invited you to our studio, because we find you disgusting.” Ironically, the very people she is fighting for, the farmers, dalits, down trodden, adivasis, Naxals etc would be hardly aware of her, and even if they do their voices are seldom heard.

It is extremely difficult to hear any views from an Indian on our own national media, speaking up openly in favour of Kasmiri separatists or the naxals. It is easier to view / read news of ‘patriotic indians kicking and punching any compatriot indulging in such open criticism.

There is indeed a very thin line between suppression of criticism and tolerence of sedition , in a democracy.

This title of the book is drawn from an essay, “listening to grasshoppers” , a lecture delivered by the author in Istanbul, on the 1915 genocide of Armenians in which more than one million people were killed. the lecture, the author says, was about the history of genocide and genocide deial and the old organic relationship between ‘progress’ and ‘genocide’

While nobody says genocide is right, there is little critcism of ‘acceptable genocides’ for eg, the great genocide, in which the europeans exterminated 50-60 million native americans or australian aborigins, all in the name of development and progress. Whereever there is a western model ‘development’ there are victims whose cries go unheard. While holocost of jews is much talked about, there is hardly any awareness of other groups like gypsies and homosexuals, systematically annihilated by the Nazis during the period of ‘nation building’ in Germany, even prior to WW II. The great powers of the time were just looking on the legitimate aspirations of the German people.

Martin Niemöller was a German Pastor who became controversial by openly supporting Hitler’s policies in the early stages of the Third Reich.He later expressed his misgivings about some of Hitler’s acts,for which he was jailed and narrowly escaped being sentenced to death.After the war, he became active as a pacifist

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Genocide does not necessaily mean killing people; it may be achieved by systematically creating an environment for an entire people to gradually fade away. Our rural popuaion is slowly getting choked as all resources from the rural areas are appropriated by the Rich, with full support of the police and judiciary and millions of people are forced to move to the urban slums where they have few rights even to food and water leave alone the democratic rights to voice their opinion.

The essays are published unedited, as written at various points of time; after the attack on Indian Parliament, after Gujrat riots, during the peak of uprising in Kashmir and after 26/11.

Mostly it is an expression of raw anger against all kinds of injustice ; for some satire, here’s a link to a street play performed by students protesting against George Bush’s visit to India in 2006.

However, bitter the ideas are, there is definitely an element of truth and it calls for a lot of soul searching on the part of every policy maker and opinion maker in the country.

Life in the Cyberworld

Today access to internet is considered a fundamental right and social network is a way of life. Anything that you share undoubtedly, enhances the fun. It is not uncommon to see someone reading Asterix comics in a library with a dead pan expression. I remember the Asterix fan club we had at … Continue reading “Life in the Cyberworld”

Today access to internet is considered a fundamental right and social network is a way of life.

Anything that you share undoubtedly, enhances the fun.

It is not uncommon to see someone reading Asterix comics in a library with a dead pan expression. I remember the Asterix fan club we had at the academy, where anything funny or even not so funny was enjoyed with uninhibited and raucous laughter. hey, look at that Roman … kya naam chhant ke rakha hai ya .. comments and likes keep flowing on every page, every frame, in the book.

Earlier families were large and when a new issue of a magazine arrived , we were at least two of us reading at one time (rapid reading was a necessity) and another waiting in the line. When TV entered the living room, it was a scheduled community activity, what with a solitary channel and the few extremely popular programs. Sharing, liking and commenting were so spontaneous and in real time, that it was hardly perceived.

Today, we watch TV programs , play games , read poetry, or listen to music, mostly alone and on the computer screen. To share anything with like minded people, we instinctively look for the like or share button. The advantage is that ‘Atlas has shrunk’ and we can reach across to any netizen, and the disadvantage is that we have forgotten the warmth of real sharing. The present generation won’t even know the feeling.

Life in the cyber world is not just sharing ideas and feelings. There is vanity, sycophancy , office politics and even mischievous and dangerous exercises as it happened recently in Pune and Mumbai, resulting in attack on people from the North East.

Whatever be, we have reached the stage of living in a cyber community, switching on and off, as it suits us. Let a thousand sites grow and a million blogs blossom.

Incredible India

I wish I could do some sketching. It is a typical family scene from the rural India. It could well have been a chaupal in their village. Men , women and children are comfortably reclining on the settees / beds; there are more women and children than men. All kinds of travel bags, gunny bags … Continue reading “Incredible India”

Meeting, feet touching, talking on mobile phones, and the non stop gossip keeps everyone busy. Some one is passing around some eatables on leaf cups. I am sure the women folk would have caught up on all happenings in the families and extended families. It was quite possible that some match making would have also taken place.

There is a stream of people taking turns at the toilet for washing, combing, and changing clothes.

This is not a waiting room in a railway station, nor some choultry; just a scene outside an ICU; yes, people, an Intensive Care Unit of a city hospital.

The place is air-conditioned. There is a vent on the ceiling, from where there is steady trickle of water . There is small puddle formed just at the entrance and it serves the purpose of spreading the dirt brought in by street shoes over the entire floor area. There is a bored security guard sitting at the entrance to ICU , answering any query with monosyllables and minimal gestures. Some people discard their footwear before moving in , and some simply walk on in street clothes and slippers.

Children keep playing by themselves, and when they get tired, the moms put them to sleep in any available space. If people are concerned about the health of the patient they have come to look up, it certainly doesn’t show.

What kind of relative are you if you cannot look up your kin at an ICU ? So, they have all come to mark their presence. Probably a tractor trolley has made a trip from the village to ferrry maximum number of people, From the sticky clay soil on some of the footwear, stacked in one corner, you can see that the men folk have rushed to the hospital straight from the fields.

Since most people use the elevators, stairs are convenient places for the spill over crowd to sit and the staircase landings are just enough for four people to sit cross-legged for a homely meal of dal and roti.

And life goes on…….

Global Economic Scene

Oxfam activists wear masks representing G20 leaders (L-R) South African President Jacob Zuma, French President Francois Hollande, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and U.S. President Barack Obama sitting at a dinner table along a shore in Los Cabos June 17, 2012. Image by: ANDRES STAPFF / REUTERS Can someone explain please ? Euro-zone Crisis India … Continue reading “Global Economic Scene”

Can someone explain please ?

Euro-zone Crisis

India pledges $ 10 Bn
China pledges $ 43 Bn
US pledges $ 0

To put it in some perspective, $ 10 bn = Rs 56,700 Crores which is roughly the amount earmarked by former Fin Min P Chidambaram in his budget of 2008, for loan waiver for farmers.There was a huge debate on the issue of bailing out our own farmers, whereas there was none whatsoever on bail out of Euro zone.

Dollar appreciation

US national Debt (Ranked no 1 in absolute terms) is over $ 15 Tn, ie $ 15,810,178,118,108 and counting ….
It is 103 % of GDP. refer to http://www.usdebtclock.org/

China’s debt 5% of GDP
India’s debt 22% of GDP
data from wikipedia

Yet dollar is appreciating against rupee and yuan.
Why is India and China competing to provide subsidies to America and Europe ?

And what does US do with its dollars ie borrowed dollars? Fight wars all over the globe, Provide social security and health cover to its citizens and provide heavy subsidies to its farmers to beat down the price of agricultural products from the third world.

A man working in a cotton factory in Mumbai, India. US subsidies of $24bn to its cotton farmers have driven down world prices and damaged livelihoods of developing world cotton producers. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

for more click

North South Divide :Perception and Communication

During a party in the officers’ mess, there was a disruption in power supply. Amidst several ‘oh no ‘ and some unprintable words, there were two distinct voices, “light gayi” and “current gayi” . The vast variance in Perception and Communication, by different people in similar circumstances, is so fascinating. The way you perceive, … Continue reading “North South Divide :Perception and Communication”

The vast variance in Perception and Communication, by different people in similar circumstances, is so fascinating. The way you perceive, dictates how you communicate or behave.

There was a time when the concept of electrical power was not there. When it did come, in North India, it was associated with its most visible aspect , ie light, in South India , it was associated with the underlying phenomenon , ie ‘Current”.

To cite more examples of the way people perceive and communicate , what is mobile phone or ‘mobile’ in the north is a ‘cell phone’ or simply ‘cell’ in the South. A filling station is ‘Petrol Pump’ in the North while ‘Petrol Bunk ‘ in the south.

To go further, in the North, any examination is simply ‘paper’ , which I presume is short for ‘the question paper’; marks are just numbers, a network is just ‘tower’ (can be used as, ‘yahan , tower nahin hain’; meaning ‘this place has no access to network’). In short, what is most visible, or just the first word is used to communicate the idea. It can also lead to some ludicrous terms, like “Old faridabad” referred to as ‘old’ and platform tickets as ‘platform’.

May be that is how everything is perceived in the North. ‘hamen kaam se matlab hai, kaida-kanoon se kya lena dena hai” (We are concerned with the proceeds not the processes.) and may be, the perception leads to disdain for systems and processes.

Just as I was writing this, my son tells me that among sailors, the certificate issued to them for proof of address or proof of identity is simply referred to as “to whomsoever”, since such certificates have a heading “TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN”. It can be used as ‘mujhe ek whomsoever chahiye” or “I want a ‘whomsoever’ “.

Mammaries of the welfare state

Reading ‘English August’ and ‘Mammaries of the Welfare State’ by Upamanyu Chattterjee, prompted me to pen my own experiences with babus of the Welfare State . Most people include army in the ‘babus’ category, but, despite being a govt organization it is more like a corporate, in terms of order, work culture, efficiency and accountability; in short, … Continue reading “Mammaries of the welfare state”

Reading ‘English August’ and ‘Mammaries of the Welfare State’ by Upamanyu Chattterjee, prompted me to pen my own experiences with babus of the Welfare State . Most people include army in the ‘babus’ category, but, despite being a govt organization it is more like a corporate, in terms of order, work culture, efficiency and accountability; in short, it is more like HDFC bank than SBI.

So when we do get to work in a civil govt org, we too undergo a cultural shock. I have had to deal with three different State Govts, while serving with NCC (National Cadet Corps) , viz, Tamilnadu
(TN), Madhya Pradesh (MP) and West Bengal (WB). There are vast differences betwen the States in language , resources, and work culture. In most of the states, NCC comes under the Education Department or the Department of youth affairs, but in WB, it comes under the Department of Civil defence and Disaster Management (CD and DM), though NCC has little do with Civil defence or disaster management except in extreme circumstances.

Be that as it may, considering that everyone is interested in milking the welfare state, it is a common factor that in any State you approach the dept, mostly for finances. Milking the state is a full time job, and it can lead to ludicrous situations. In WB, there was an NCC BN, where not a single clerk was posted out of authorized strength of 10. Of course there were 12-15 Group D staff posted. The question is how do you do the paper work for drawing the salary and other allowances . A clerk was hired to do the needful and he was paid out of the unit’s private resources. So the only work done in the unit was preparation of salary bills and that too was outsourced !

While at TN and MP, I was just one of the users, in WB, I was one of the privileged few to be involved in budgeting, release of funds and such aspects.

This took me to the famed Writers’ Building atleast twice a week. The WB Govt , or the Party, as they call it, loved to exercise tight control over everything and what better way to achieve this than by holding on tightly to the purse strings.

An NCC unit incurring an expenditure of say, Rs 2000/- for sending just one cadet for some training, had to send a proposal to the Department through the proper channel of communication. This was finally approved by the Dept of CD and DM, and a Goverment Order (GO) was issued based on which the amount was drawn from the Govt Treasury.

Issuance of a GO is a torturous process, requiring the concurrence of the triumvirate, Pricipal Secretary (PS), Joint Secreatry (JS) and Deputy Secreatry (DS) , duly approved by the all powerful “finance dept” and the invisible hand of the trade union. Despite all efforts, the funds may not be available in time if the particulr clerk responsible for typing the GO glares at you and says ‘hobe na’ (not possible) for whatever reason. It may be due to the fast approaching Durga Poojo (Poojo starts approaching a month in advance) or ‘jomoi shashti’ or one of the many ‘poojos’ in the land of ‘barah mahino, teroh poojo’. When poojos didn’t oblige, the didi did by calling for a bandh on the odd working day. Those were the days when didi was in the opposition.

Coming to the ring side view of the working of the Govt, the minister was young, highly educated and a genial man. But any interation with him started and ended with exchange of pleasantaries. The PS, of the IAS cadre, was again a very affable person, but had definitely imbibed the work cuture of the State, with the long years spent in the districts. When he was not pan-chewing in a comtemplative mood, or discussing office politics, he could be seen laboriously working on a draft letter with one bare foot perched on the chair, and tongue sticking out in deep concentration. The entire process of issue of a letter, from dictaion to his PA, typing, corrections, recorrections, retyping and final despatch could take about a week in good times.ie when there was no disruptions due to strikes or poojos. A computer was seen in his office, but it was seldom used.

The real work or obstruction to any kind of work took place in the large halls, populated by hundreds of clerks, duly supervised by JS s and DSs from their tiny cabins. One had to negotiate through a labyrinth of corridors, with only the singara vendors and huge stacks of files and the public toilets, for sign posts. You literally had to use your nose for navigation.

It all may sound very depressing, but surprisingly things do move, if you keep at it. People are good natured and courteous even if they didn’t like being rushed in their workplace. Only in their workplace they take it easy; they are just personifications of efficiency when it comes to participating in Durga poojo celebrations or while organizing a musical night. The PA to the minister was secretary of his mohalla Durga poojo cmmittee and by the way he plotted and planned to mobile resources for the poojo, one would think that was his primary job. So, things did move if you are patient.

West Bengal Civil Defence Minister Sreekumar Mukherjee

It was a great day, when I saw the ‘Master GO‘ declaring that the senior most army officer responsible for all NCC activities in the state , was empowered to draw and expend money, based on a lump sum allotment for the whole year. It also meant the end of my biweekly or triweekly visits to the Writers’ Building. Fortunately for me, my tenure there alo came to an end around that time, for I would definitely have missed the trips through the corridors of power.

A Married Woman : Manju Kapur

After her debut novel, Difficult Daughters, Manju Kapur has followed it up with ‘ A married woman’, another story highlighting the struggle within a seemingly conventional woman to find her identity in the family and the society. ‘A married woman ‘ starts in the period 70s and 80s, the period, when the ‘difficult daughter’ signed … Continue reading “A Married Woman : Manju Kapur”

If the first novel was about education vs marriage, the second is about a woman’s right to own property, manage finances, develop her talents, explore her passions, thrive for self actualization and all this from within the safety and security of a rock solid marriage.

The story starts with, Astha, a middle class college student, running away from ‘girl seeing ceremonies’ and the constant talk of her marriage at home. She has a couple of teenage flings before finally getting married to a ‘good boy’ as arranged by the parents.

While the husband has relatively liberal views on women, he continues to take his role as the ‘sole provider’ too seriously. I suppose, this is one role men have to go easy on and women have to be a little more serious about to bring about harmony at home.

As the story unfolds, there is a nice description of the fears and aspirations of a middle class family , in the 80s. Astha’s parents, pay the price for not preparing well for the retirement, while Hemant’s parents ride the boom in demand for property.

After a few months of married life, ‘dullness’ sets in. With, undemanding in-laws and ample support from domestic help, she has enough free time to be restless. She has to take up a job. It had to be a teaching job, which she dreaded.

In-laws approved ” It is a good time-pass”

Mother: ” As a teacher you will earn some money, you will be out only half a day, so the house will not suffer”

father: “It will do until you decide to develop yourself in other ways”

Husband :- With a job you won’t get fidgety if I am a minute late”

So, a career is made, for all these reasons, while Hemant’s business picks up well to provide for the family. Kids come, grow old enough to go to school, depending less and less on their mother. Obviously it is not a life fulfilling enough for Astha.

Astha’s latent talents surface, encouraged by the attractive Street Play director , Aijaj. She starts painting. Babri masjid issue comes up , conveniently enough, so that Astha can express her social awareness and responsibilities with her painting talents.

Enters Pipleeka Khan, to arouse in her a kind of sensuality, which she did not know that it existed.

Now you have a married woman donning many hats and switching deftly among the many roles that she plays; as wife , daughter in law, mother, an artist a social activist and a passionate lover to her lesbian partner. So much for self-actualization.

Naturally, it is not easy to play so many conflicting roles. She resorts to lies and deceit which is sort of justified , for whatever reason.

“She began to lie at home about where she was going and what she was doing. Most of the girls she knew who were seeing boys lied. It was routine self protective thing . And how necessary, Astha had seen.”

“Her lies grew skillful. Her desperation and her need had ensured that they tripped off her tongue, as though she had rehearsed them for hours.”

Much has been said about the rendition of a lesbian relationship. Frankly it is not easy to understand.

“…….Afterwards, Astha felt strange, making love to a woman took getting used to. And it felt strange, making love to a friend, instead of an adversary.”

Strange it is ! to call men as adversaries, and if so, it is stranger to call ‘having sex’ as ‘making love’.

A good read, if only to learn or understand a little more about the women in your lives.

what is for ‘touching’

At home, whenever there is a talk of a meal / tiffin there is always the question of ‘ thottukka enna ?’ (for the benefit of non tamil speaking, thottukka literally means ‘touching’) , but it is one of those untranslatable words associated with the way some people eat. It is best explained in a … Continue reading “what is for ‘touching’”

It is best explained in a scene in the tamil movie ‘nala dhamayanti’. A customs official opens a jar of pickles and asks, ‘ something eatable’ ; the pallakkad brahman is mortified; and he exclaims in a thickly accented english ‘no no no no, not eating.. only touching.”

It is not seasoning, not garnishing or anything like that. Typically, when you have curd rice with your fingers that have just touched a dollop of pickle, well that is ‘thottuka’,

Some people call it a side dish. but it is more than just that. it complements the main dish from taste, texture, nutrition and health point of view.

There is strict code for what can go with what . There is virtually not a single preparation that is complete in itself. What is idli without the coconut chutney or curd rice without a dollop of pickle, particularly, lemon or better still, dry sweet lime pickle.

How can one have adai with sambhar? For a Tanjavoor brahmin, it is sheer blasphemy to have adai with anything other than jaggery or butter.

Curd rice being the most important dish for the ‘Tambra’s has a great many items to go with it. Just the sight of makali kizhangu kindles one’s appetite so much that you end up having double the portion of curd rice; after all you cannot have makali kizhangu without curd rice.

While ‘touching’ is so important while eating, at times, a simple touch can render a whole meal uneatable. Here, we come to the concept of echil (avoiding contact with saliva, like while sipping from a tumbler) and pathu (segregating cooked food from uncooked food).

most people can never understand the nuances. But a tamil brahmin can never understand as to

how can you drink water from a bottle or a glass on which some one else has put his or her lips to ?
how can you pass around a cake or a sweet for everyone to take a bite from ?
how can you wash the utensils in a sink where someone has just gargled after a meal ?

tail-piece

an american, the story goes, was offered a makke ki roti with saag on top. He ate the saag with a spoon and returned the ‘plate’ to his host.

Give a man a fish

“Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he is fed for a life time” …much quoted lines.. after all why should it be only about food ? Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental … Continue reading “Give a man a fish”

“Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he is fed for a life time” …much quoted lines..

after all why should it be only about food ? Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests

people come to me with computer problems, hardware, software and skills…

they are not stupid people , (they are generally smarter than me) and they can easily do what I do, through a bit of googling and a bit of experimentation.. but then they enjoy taking a fish from me , rather than learning how to fish.. though sometimes someone does insist on learning but then complain that I don’t teach well…!?

the bottom line is that I enjoy fishing and giving fish to people and they enjoy receiving their fish free of cost and using their time and effort in more productive ways, for example partying or networking.. I don’t complain at all, since the whole effort makes me feel good 😉

How I wish the whole world adopts ubuntu for their OS, and I am saved from the pain of seeing innocent people suffering from virus attacks , formatting and reformatting of hard disks, data loss, rampant piracy and anti-piracy operations in the cyber space.. not to mention the financial loss to all except Bill Gates and his like ?

I do feel strongly that there is a great injustice perpetrated on innocent computer users. But who am I to complain ? who am I to change the way people use their computers ? I restrict myself to making some noises where I can, just to please myself.

coming back to the first line …sigh .. sigh… will I, or someone else ever be able to teach the world how to fish ?