Category: Books

Palace of illusions falls in the genre of “No man’s land” . Historical fiction ? Mythology ?, History ? Or just fiction?  Amazon groups most of  such literature under main head Science Fiction , Horror and Fantasy and subhead Fantasy . Does it mean fiction is not fantasy ?

In a way, what is fiction but creative, imaginative narration of real life incidents with added twists and turns to make it dramatic and spell binding and fantasy gives unbridled flow to narration.

I go by this definition of Fantasy . Fantasy is a sub-genre of fiction. It refers to a branch of fiction which usually takes place in a world displaced from ours in either place or time. It has elements of the supernatural, including elements of magic, talking bears and dragons and so on.

So should we then call it historical fantasy ?

The Palace of Illusions is the story of Mahabharatam , in a way it would appeal even to a young reader. Indian mythology is very amenable to creative story telling. To quote the author , “a story gains power with retelling.” So we do have a very powerful story here.

I have read many versions at least once and one version by Rajagoplachari, “Vyasar Virundhu” in Tamil countless times. Mahabharatham is like a Matryoshka doll, with stories within stories going on and on. Virtually there is an explanation for anything happening anywhere as a fall out of something that happened in a different time and space. That is the theory of karma in all its glory.

As for readability, the most boring version is, predictably , the original one; no not in Sanskrit but the English translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. Almost every sentence is so convoluted with lengthy adjectives and honorifics for each character even in a routine conversation. Some examples :-

“Saying this the mild-speeched Krishna hid her face with her soft hands like the buds of lotus, and began to weep. And the tears of Panchali begot of grief washed her deep, plump and graceful breasts crowned with auspicious marks.”

“When Yudhishthira said this, his beloved queen. the high-minded Krishna of sweet smiles, answered him.”

(Krishnaa is another name of Draupadi)

So, we do need the story to be told and re-told in any number of styles, in prose, poetry and drama. The Palace of Illusions starts with the birth or the appearance of Draupadi at King Drupad’s yagya. (sacrifice) . What makes this narration special is that it is told as seen though the eyes of the main female character , Draupadi or Paanchaali.

Right from the start there is the focus on her being born with a destiny to fulfill. In her growing up years (some say that Draupadi was already  an adult when she came out of the sacrificial fire) there is elation and  there is anxiety and her chance encounter with the great sage Vyasa , rather than putting her at ease, only causes  more anxiety .

Despite the prophesies ,as events unfold , she finds herself in no position to change the course of her unusual life. She is probably the only one  among gods, gandharva , yakshas and the mortals , who is married  to five men. She knows that her destiny would drive her to be the cause of the greatest war on earth  and the end of an eon.

No single character can be aware of everything happening over a large canvas of time and space. So our protagonist gets a boon of divya- drishti (divine power to see everything) from the sage Vyasa and the Queen of Dreams dreams up the parts required to cover the gaps in the story. In a way Draupadi becomes the fourth know-all in the story after, Krishna, Vyasa and Bhishma.

The title says it all. Palace of illusions at Indraprastha is central to Paanchaali’s reign as the Queen of Pandava Kingdom. Though this period spans 36 years , most versions give just a broad-brush treatment to this phase barring the Rajasuya Yagya which is at the fag end of the period.

I am going on and on about Mahabharatam in general rather than about this book; but I can’t help it. While reading, there is always a stream of thoughts in the backdrop from various versions, as one looks for similarities and variances. What stands out in the Palace of Illusions is the total familiarity bordering on utter irreverence shown to the great heroes and even gods. This makes the characters look more human and the book more readable.

Just a few examples:-

About Yudhistra

“Was he a saint, or merely lacking in common sense? In either case, it was most annoying.”

About Arjuna

“For once, my much-wedded husband (aided by a dig from my elbow in his ribs) made the right decision: he asked that the princess become, instead, his son Abhimanyu’s wife.”

Krishna, an Avtar of Vishnu is singled out for special treatment . There is levity and facetiousness where-ever Krishna comes on the scene.

That’s how the famous Geethopadesh at Kurukshetra is described !

“When I watched Krishna advise Arjun, consoling him, teaching him how to be successful not only on this battlefield but beyond it, I almost didn’t recognize the amusing, carefree man I’d known since my girlhood. Where had he learned so many philosophies? When had he made their wisdom his own?”

What is a story without a love triangle ? May be in this case it could be a love – hexagon or is it love-polygon , what with Paanchaali talking about the wives of her husbands ! Karna angle is the most unexpected one in the polygon.

Over all, It’s a great read; awesome story telling and absolutely fascinating style. Just wondering ,how would the story have gone, if other strong female characters like Kunti , Gaandhari or even Rukmini had also insisted on voicing  their viewpoints .

PS

The book is best enjoyed if you have a good knowledge of Indian Mythology in general. Unlike Ramayanam, Mahabharatham provides scope for threadbare analysis of all the characters. No one including Krishna is beyond reproach. For further reading / viewing I would suggest Gurcharan Das’s “Difficulty of being good “ and the serial “Dharmakshetra” on Epic Channel. Here’s one episode.

follow through…..

The title, ” Anti social media” tells it all. Whatever is ambiguous in the title is clarified in the byline; How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy.

Marc Zuckerberg’s stated aim is to make the world more open and connected rather to be obsessed with revenue and profits.

That was as per a letter written in 2012 at the time of IPO of the company.  The letter ends with the words as follows:-

………Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do……

Seven years down the line, exactly the opposite has happened. Facebook along with WhatsApp that was acquired by Facebook later is one of the main causes for the polarized world we live in today.

A media that would induce anti social behaviour should rightly be called anti-social media ..and we call it social media.

A blurb from the back cover of the book:-

If you want to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook. Of course, none of that was part of the plan.

The author calls Zuckerberg a deeply thoughtful, sincere, idealistic, and concerned person, rather than a manipulative and uncaring corporate demon. He feels that Zuckerberg lacks the education to understand nuances and the ability to figure out how people would react to his products.

The book is full of stories of silicon valley start-ups  involved in the process of feeding the beast called social media. Start-ups focus on a specific aspect of technology, grow into big companies or get swallowed by the big companies.

Those who have followed the Seattle start ups would be aware of this phenomenon. A small company called Keyhole , with 40 employees, that provided web served maps was struggling to stay afloat . It was bought up by Google and today you have Google Maps dominating the market.

It is the big guys who decide which start-ups would survive and what directions the world of technology should take.  The big five today are Facebook, Alphabet (the holding company for Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple.

An excerpt ..

………….If the five biggest technology companies in the world fulfill their wishes, they will sell us a series of devices, each promising to make our daily tasks a little bit more convenient.

These devices would monitor us without our direct interaction. They would capture our intentions and desires at those few moments when we are not staring at screens and typing on keyboards. Some of these devices sit on our counters. Others are embedded in our cars. Some are built into our thermostats and appliances. Others sit on our skin………………..

After the introduction, the author goes on to list the varied of roles played by social media in general and Facebook in particular.

Pleasure Machine.

It is a pleasure Machine. It consistently gives small doses of pleasure, as can be seen from people smiling or laughing caressing their mobile screen ; ask them after a few minutes as to what made them smile and it is most likely that they  would have  nothing to recall. It is just a series of stories flashing by to kill time, to kill boredom.

Surveillance Mach

This has become the major role of Facebook. The author says Sheryl Sandberg who brought the idea of targeted advertising from Google to Facebook, made a great impact on the way Facebook collected and compiled personal information. Ostensibly, the info was voluntarily given by the users so as to get the kind of contents they would like to receive or for the information of their ‘friends’. In reality people end up sharing all kinds of inputs that they are not even aware that they are sharing. Beware of the applications advising you to log through Facebook. Does anyone stop to wonder as to how a Mutual Fund Portal could be accessible through Google or Facebook. Obviously, they are sharing your details. Of course, the user voluntarily uses Facebook to login, elsewhere.

One unfortunate fall out of Social Media is what is called ‘Revenge porn‘ . It is something that happens when friends don’t remain friends .

Every activity of the user is monitored by the system, including the time one wakes up, her mode of travel, places visited , food habits, friends, enemies and frenimies, spending habits, opinions on major and minor issues ; the list is endless. what was called Panopticon in the pre-social media days is now called cryptopticon. Keep everyone under observation 24 x 7 through digital footprints or finger prints.

FB builds a rich personal dossier, probably including such stuff that even you are not aware.

Attention machine

Facebook scrambles the commercial and the social messages. All kinds of new media or entertainment media compete for attention of people in a world where the attention span is getting shorter and shorter.

The stories from SM also should make us cautious because they signal to other news and entertainment outlets that one should—or must—pander to Facebook to succeed in a shrinking market for advertising revenue and a crowded supply of attention-seeking destinations. Not only do the Guardian, El País, and Haaretz all compete with Huff Post, Breitbart, and the New York Times for space and frequency on Facebook News Feeds, they also compete with YouTube videos, games, music, podcasts, and hundreds of other diversions in daily life – all of them more and more precisely engineered to hook us and keep us coming back.

Nobody goes to Facebook to read news , but many end up doing exactly that.; that too one sided news, designed and delivered to the target audiences ,that is you.

Benevolent machine

Facebook started the Internet.org called free basics in India. Ostensibly, keeping with the Founder’s letter of 2012, quoted above,  free bsics aimed at empowerment of people.

We believe building tools to help people share can bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time.

When the “Arab Spring” erupted in 2010, the western media cheered the social media . They looked at Facebook and WhatsApp as harbinger of democracy. As events unfolded , the so called ‘Arab Spring’ only ended up transferring power from one oppressor to the other.

When Donald Trump got elected , the same Social Media was accused as a tool for manipulation of electors’ minds . Kamala Harris , like many democrats, accuse the Russians for manipulating the electoral process. She also acknowledges the existence of fault lines in US Socio-economic system that could be exploited through social media.

Author’s conclusions are not very convincing. He suggests that the monster called Facebook be regulated by Govts.  It is only a dictatorial govt like the communist China that can ban Facebook. But the void is filled by something like WeChat that is even more powerful and totally under control of the Govt.

It is not just ‘fascist govts’ that use Social media to manipulate, it is the so called liberals themselves who are guilty of spreading  fake stories or disseminating  their bias and  prejudices.  

When Obama campaign used the Net, the ‘liberal’ world applauded , but when Trump Campaign did that , they cried foul. Of course a point to note is that the golden period of blogs  roughly “2002-2007” was way different from Facebook and Whatsapp era. To read or write , one needs to think. Forwarding is done better when one is on a “high” , may be LSD or may be anger or hatred.

In my mind, it is only individuals who can choose to stay away from Social Media to preserve their sanity, can make an impact. After all when one can avoid legally permitted addictions like tobacco and marijuana why can’t one avoid excessive activities on Social Media ?

There is hardly any computer or mobile phone user untouched by Google in the past decade.

Be it Gmail , Maps , YouTube , Android or the ubiquitous Google search box , most of us can’t imagine life without the google products.

To top it, no one pays a Google bill !

Today we take Google Maps for granted , to get the directions to reach a place ,to look for a restaurant nearby or simply to know where you are at a particular time while travelling.  It is such a recent phenomenon  and yet it makes you wonder how you got along earlier before Google Maps came into being.

“Never Lost Again” by Bill Kilday  is the story of the evolution of Google Maps. I say evolution and not development as these kind of projects do not follow a rigid plan but take their own course depending on a plethora of factors like hardware capabilities, state of economy, availability of funds, Marketability of intermediate products and by-products and of course chance happenings.

No doubt Americans are great innovators. An average american is unfettered by too many cultural Dos and Don’ts and dares to attempt what appears impossible.  While in fields like Automobiles, aviation, Pharmacy or Domestic appliances the improvements  are incremental,  in the field of information technology it is real magic ,particularly so after the advent of Internet or simply the NET.

Before the Iphone, who would have thought of multi touch access or pinching an image to zoom in or zoom out ? Who would have thought of accessing dynamic , global maps through a pocket size device ? Even now I feel , sheer magic it is !

Perhaps there is not one company at the Silicon Valley  that deliberately planned and developed such devices or technologies.  It is a convergence of technologies related to Maps, satellite imagery,  gaming, search engines all evolving independently to create the great user experience that we are seeing today.

Google Maps as we know today is a convergence of Smartphone Operating System, Database applications, Digital Mapping, Satellite imagery and Search Engine Algorithms.

In the period 1995-2005, a number of start ups shot up funded by Venture Capitalists. Most of them folded up due to lack of funds and a a few survived.  It  does not mean that the survivors were the very the best  in the business as there were so many factors other than technology that decided who would survive.

Fortunately or unfortunately, in the field of IT, the rule is “winner takes all” . You can be never sure  if the good guy has won. In the OS war, Windows along with Internet Explorer emerged victorious in the 90s and the issue is very much debatable if life of a PC User would have been better had someone else won. (As I am writing this I just got a report of a Windows 10 Crash from a friend. ) Of course , any system can crash but I generally find a kind of helplessness with windows users when their system does not behave in the way they expect it to.

Never Lost Again is the story of a company called Keyhole  , a provider of digital maps to its subscribers over the internet. The story is narrated as seen through the eyes of a marketing man ; one who calls himself a Product Manager and a Product Marketing Manager, both rolled into one.

So you learn more about financial, legal and marketing challenges than about technology . In a way this makes it a more interesting read. Who wants to read about algorithms and image formats ? Yes, lot of complex processes are  absurdly simplified  but it keeps the interest alive for a layman ;for eg “Stitching up images into a mosaic to be streamed through a server ” definitely sounds better than “separating luma signal and chroma signal and using advance video codecs to compress “

Be that as it may, the trials and tribulations that a start up team undergoes is fascinating and awe-inspiring.  I feel entrepreneurs are more successful in US  than elsewhere as there, it is okay to fail. They take more risks or to put it in baseball idiom, they take mighty swings with gay abandon and once connected end up with  huge hits !

Out of all the IT companies, Google definitely stands out as unique as they aimed at great user experience rather than profits. The Keyholers (Keyhole Company emplyees) once merged with Googlers on acquisition, noticed that in Google nobody talked about revenues, break-even point etc. They solely went after great user experience which they achieved to the full extent ; and the dollars followed them automatically.

It is absolutely incredible  that after burning millions of dollars to create Google Maps and Google earth, they just gave it away for free and yet made up for this loss on revenues from sheer brand value of Google and revenue from other products .

In his letter to Shareholders Google Co founders warned the investors that it was not a conventional company to focus on wealth creation for shareholders. Yet the market continued to reward the shareholders with huge profits year after year.

Today the google products , beside the well known Google toolbar include Gmail, You-tube, Google docs, Google-drive, Photos, Translate, News ,Books  etc covering  every aspect of personal computers. It is not exaggeration to say that all your computer needs are fulfilled just by a laptop running on Linux OS  and a reliable WIfi connection. There is absolutely no need for any other software like windows or MS Office, and it’s all on the cloud and it’s all for free to use . Who says there’s no free lunch ?!

Trivia

The geeks may not go after profits but they sure do put their signatures on their products. I use Debian OS ; which user of the OS can forget the name of the creator  Ian and his girlfriend Deborah.

Recently I learnt ,Android was created by  Andy Rubin ! 

I have been spending the past couple of months or so bingeing on some serious retro reading about stories set in Kumaon , Bengal and Tamil Country of 19^th Century. What surprises me is that the core issues debated then were not very different from the Whatsapp and TV channel debates today; only the medium was different.

Gora by Rabindra Nath Tagore gives a wonderful picture of the rise of Brohmosamaj , Influence of British Raj on the society (the good and the bad) and the Traditional Hindus’ resistance to this onslaught.

The fight continues to this day, politically and socially as can be seen from anti-superstition legislatures in Karanataka and Maharashtra and the bill now being debated in Kerala. Superstitions or blind faith , mostly harmless, have  been common among all faiths including athiesm (Karunanithi never went out without his yellow shawl , UP Chief Minister wouldn’t visit NOIDA and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar always wore his left pad first, for luck). It is good to fight injustice and ignorance anywhere but somehow it is only Hinduism in general and brahmins in particular who  have been consistently singled out to be attacked by ‘rationalists’. The irony of Brohma samaj is that it was a group of twice-born brahmins who started the  movement to reform Hinduism from within but ended up becoming outcastes from  all societies , Hindu and  Non Hindu alike and finally Adhi Brohmo samaj had to be declared a separate religion, at least to validate the marriages among followers of the belief.

read more about brohmos

Every single character in the Novel is developed beautifully, taking care not to idolize or demonise any one. The followers of brohmosamj or Brohmos as they were called started out as reformers , but fell prey to creating another sect as rigid or perhaps more rigid , as the followers of Hindu Shastras. While Hindus have in-numerous beliefs or superstitions and some of them non-negotiable , the brohmos had evolved their own non-negotiable behaviour for their followers. It is not just they had to refrain from idol worship they were to stay away from from their own family members if any of them were to practice idol worship in whatever form.

The central character as the title suggests is ‘Gora’ short for Gourmohan Babu. He is firm in his convictions on following the Shastras as laid down over centuries.  At the same time, he loathes to ill-treat a fellow human being in the name of religion or traditions.

His convictions are brought out in the umpteen debates  he joins at the drop of a hat.

“Those whom you call illiterate are those to whose party I belong. What you call superstition, that is my faith! So long as you do not love your country and take your stand beside your own people, I will not allow one word of abuse of the motherland from you.”

…….”Reform? That can wait a while yet. More important than reforms are love and respect. Reform will come of itself from within, after we are a united people. You would break up the country into a hundred bits by your policy of separateness. Because, forsooth, our country is full of superstitions, you, the non-superstitious, must keep superior and aloof! What I say is,—may it be my greatest desire never to keep apart from the rest, even by becoming superior! ….

…..Let me tell you that we are not going to submit to outside attempts to reform us, whether it be from you or from foreign missionaries.”…….

“I want you to remember one thing. If we have the mistaken notion that because the English are strong we can never become strong unless we become exactly like them, then that impossibility will never be achieved, for by mere imitation we shall eventually be neither one thing nor the other. To you I make only this request: come inside India, accept all her good and her evil: if there be deformity then try and cure it from within, but see it with your own eyes, understand it, think over it, turn your face towards it, become one with it. You will never understand if you stand opposed and, imbued to the bone with Christian ideas, view it from outside. Then you will only try to wound and never be of any service.”

Then you have Anandmoyi, the most lovable, compassionate mother. She defies the society when it goes against her conscience to follow its dictates  , yet she insists on staying in the society though it  never accepts her ways. She brings to life, the mother that Swami Vivekananda speaks about in his lectures.

Paresh Babu is a prominent leader of Brohmosamaj, who was a young turk in his own youth, as one who broke away from traditional path . Over a period of time he matures into a kind of universal guru for Hindus and Brohmos alike.

Though a committed Brohmo, his heart is large enough to accommodate all:–

……..As for myself, I pray to god that I may always be a simple, humble worshipper of truth, whether in a Brahmo temple or at a Hindu shrine….

…..”There are plenty of such people amongst Brahmos also,” said Paresh Babu. “They want to sever all connections with Hinduism without discrimination, lest outsiders should mistakenly think they condone also its evil customs…

Binoy is a gentle person whose loyalty for Gora restrains him from exercising his free will at times.  On some prodding from the spirited Brohmos girl Lolita he asserts his right to be open to all ideas, even while attached to the Shastras and traditions as long as they do not hurt anyone.

When Gora tries to stop him from having tea in a brohmo’s house, he takes a firm stand . It might look silly today to consider it courageous to accept food or water from a person of different faith, but one has to be in that space and time to understand what it takes to defy the societal norms.

“But really, Gora,” expostulated Binoy, “if it is a blow to society for someone to drink a cup of tea, then all I can say is that such blows are good for the country. If we try to protect the country from this kind of thing, we shall only make it weak and effeminate.”

The Brohmos sisters Sucharita and Lolita form the centre of the plot along with the Gora and Binoy. They are encouraged by Paresh Babu to question everything even while taking a humane approach to every issue. This very aspect, leads them to question the rigidity of thought in the supposed to be a reformist movement “The Brohmo Samaj” . Their mother ‘Baroda’ or Bordashundari on the contrary is an extreme brohmo to the extent she wouldn’t stand any Hindu custom or tradition if only because it is related to Hindus. This attitude results in a visceral hatred for idol worship, hindu scriptures ,rituals  etc.  The author brings in another character Harimohini perhaps to counter balance Ms Baroda. Harimohini is a typical pious Hindu lady in her external behaviour and yet she can be so manipulative  to use the shastras as a weapon to hurt others or get her way through. Both Baroda and Harimohini are   anti-thesis to Anandamoyi, who ironically is ostracized by both societies !

Krishnadayal, Gora’s father is the stereotype orthodox hindu who cares only for his own salvation or what he thinks would lead to that.

The entire story is narrated in the form of serious discussions , more like a formal debate . How the main protagonists start from rock solid  convictions and yet evolve emotionally and intellectually to find a middle path acceptable to all parties is what the story is all about.

A Scene from a play Gora enacted in Hyderabad (Courtesy The Hindu).

After a number of twists and turns, it is neither the Shastras nor the dogmas of Brohmos but simple humaneness prevails ; the traditionalists Gora and Binoy get married to the Brohmos, Sucharitra and Lolita with the blessings of Gora’s mother Anandamoyi and Lolitha’s father Paresh Babu even while the entire society, brohmos and hindus alike are opposed to these marriages. They choose to be united by the common values they share like compassion , charity, sympathy for less fortunate people , rather than be divided by the ideologies of the society they belong to.

A wonderful read, particularly for the present times; I wish I could have read it in original Bangla , as many nuances get lost in translation.

Brohmo Samaj

Most of us would be aware that Brohmo Samaj was started as a reform movement from within the Hindufold. But not many of us would be aware of the number of splits and mergers  it underwent over a period of time and its present status.

To put it briefly, it started as a Hindu reform movement, leaned heavily towards Christianity under Keshab Chandra Sen and then once Christian ideology was firmly expelled , it became an independent religion called Adhi Brohmo Samaj

The core Adi-Dharma doctrinal beliefs differing from Brahmanical Hinduism include:

1. There is only One “Supreme Spirit”, Author and Preserver of Existence. (… Beyond description, immanent, transcendent, eternal, formless, infinite, powerful, radiant, loving, light in the darkness, ruling principle of existence …. Polytheism is denounced. Idolatry i.e. worship of images is opposed.)
2. There is no salvation and no way to achieve it. (“Works will win”. Worshipful work is the way of existence. Work is for both body and soul. All life exists to be consumed. The soul is immortal and does not return to this World. There is neither Heaven nor Hell nor rebirth)
3. There is no scripture, revelation, creation, prophet, priest or teacher to be revered. (Only the Supreme Spirit of Existence can be revered – not the Vedas, Granths, Bibles or Quran etc. Worship consist of revering the “inner light within” i.e. enlightened conscience)
4. There is no distinction. (All men are equal. Distinctions like caste, race, creed, colour, gender, nationality etc. are artificial. There is no need for priests, places of worship, long sermons^[3] etc. “Man-worship” or “God-men” are abhorrent to the faith and denounced since there is no mediator between man and God).

Legal Status of the Brahmo Religion

In a landmark case of 1901 (Bhagwan Koer & Ors v J.C.Bose & Ors, 31 Cal 11, 30 ELR IA 249) Britain’s highest judicial authority, the Privy Council, upheld the finding of the High Court of the undivided Punjab that the vast majority of Brahmo religionists are not Hindus and have their own religion. The Council upheld the finding of the High Court that Debendranath Tagore was the founder of the Brahmo religion. The High Court in 1897 had distinguished anusthanic Brahmo “religionists” (“outside the pale of Hinduism”) from ananusthanic “followers” of the Brahmo Samaj who continue to retain their Hinduism or other existing religion.

In 1949 the Government of India passed the “Hindu Marriages Validity Act”. Despite discussion in Parliament Brahmos are not brought within the scope of this Law. In 1955 the Government of India passes the “Hindu Code” (a comprehensive set of laws for Hindus). Again despite discussion in Parliament, Brahmo religionists are not brought within the scope of these laws which, however, now become applicable to Hindus who are also followers of the Brahmo Samaj.

In 2002, Bangladesh (whose Law Commission relied on the binding decision of the High Court of undivided Punjab) enacted a law recognizing Brahmo religionists and Brahmo marriages under traditional rites to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists as legally valid.

On 05.May.2004 the Supreme Court of India by order of the Chief Justice dismissed the Government of West Bengal’s 30 year litigation to get Brahmos classified as Hindus. The matter had previously been heard by an 11 Judge Constitution Bench of the Court (the second largest bench in the Court’s history).

A Trivia The Nehru family made a good use of the Brahmos Marriage Act -1872 , in that starting from Nehru’s sister Krishna Huttheesing, followed by  Indira Gandhi , Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjai Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, all  got married under this act as this is the only ‘religion’ that caters for marriage between people of different religions and it doesn’t require any conversion.

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The novelist, Namita Gokhale is from an illustrious family of Kumaon. Born in Lucknow in 1956, Gokhale was brought up by her irrepressible grandmother Shakuntala Pande—niece of freedom fighter Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant—and free-spirited aunts (Jayanti Pant and Hindi writer Shivani-Gaura Pant ), in an extended joint family in Nainital.

First time I read about these crazy ladies was in the book ‘Diddi‘ , the story of Shivani by her youngest daughter Ira Pande.  Shivani  is not well known among the English Speaking Indians ( Not necessarily English reading) as she wrote in an Indian language, Hindi. Though she was proficient in Gujarati, Bengali Urdu, English and Sanskrit, she chose to write in Hindi. It’s matriarchs all the way in the families of Pants, Pandes and Joshis of Kumaon. These ladies are all manifestations of Shakti and Kali rather than the docile Gauri.

The story “Things to leave Behind” centers around two strong ladies Tillotama aka Tilli and her daughter  Deoki alias Diana. What powerful personalities  they depict , particularly so when considering that the story is  set in the backdrop of Orthodox brahmin families in the middle of 19th century.

As a historical fiction, main events in history including the many natural disasters are interwoven with the story of Tilli. It was also the tumultuous period in history , when the first battle of Independence took place . Though the British were rulers , there were some who were born and raised in India and became more Indians than Indians, like Jim Corbett .

The author highlights the extreme levels the Kumaoni brahmins go to,  in their efforts to avoid pollution and for purification. There are  frequent references to the “written in stone ” rules for cooking and washing. Only a brahmin lady in a single un-stitched garment is allowed to enter a kitchen.  Chhyodha (a mixture of ganga jal- water from river Ganges and gaumiyam – cow urine) is kept at the entrance of the house , so that the men folk who have to interact with public could purify themselves before entering the house.

There are many foreigners in the story, that includes British and American evangelists / administrators and a  free spirited , effervescent American painter,  Dempster who develops an instant liking for Deoki.

The relation between Dempster and Deoki is described in such a  natural and poignant manner, that there is no hint of a sin which is a feature central to any Orthodox way of thinking.

All in all , the women of Kumaon, come out to be more liberal and natural in their thinking despite their sticking on to many of the centuries old traditions. On the contrary, the foreigners are firmly bound by the Victorian morals . They just  have an option of total acceptance or total rejection. No wonder, the Indians’ tolerance for ambiguity would make a westerner totally confused. They often dismiss it  as hypocrisy, which it may not be.

The central character Tilottama, educates herself after marriage. She even  learns English by reading Almora Annals a broadsheet newsletter published by the Cantonment Press.

She refuses to  be intimidated by the local customs nor the imported culture of the West. As a young girl, she adds new motifs to a traditional wedding Pichora . Where you had only spiritual symbols like swastik and Ohm, she adds books and pens indicating her love for books.

As a mother, when she finds that her son in law had converted to Christianity, she responds in her eccentric best . I quote from the book…

You are a christian , so is she , now. You see before you Deoki Diana….

In an impromptu and ragged ceremony, put together from her readings of Pandita Ramabai, Tilottama had taken a copy of the Holy Bible from her ever expanding library and thwacked Deoki on the head with it. ‘I now pronounce thee Deoki Diana,’ She had announced in a grave English voice ,’Rest in Peace!’    

The book has the  sights,sounds  and smells of Kumaon, Nepal  and the old Bombay all through, making it an interesting read.

Having read the book , I had to go  back to Diddi by Ira Pande which I had read long back and bought “Mountain Echoes” by Namita Pant that I had not come across before.

On reading all three one comes across the amazing overlap between real characters and fictional ones and often one finds that, to fall back on the much used cliche  ” Truth , indeed is stranger than fiction”. True liberals and true feminists indeed. True stories with some embellishments , are richer in emotional and intellectual appeal , and definitely more inspiring to negotiate  the day to day issues  in life.

One of the greatest advantages of residing in Mhow is having three good  libraries within a radius of two Kms. The icing on the cake is that all these libraries face an identical problem during this part of the year; how to expend the budgetary allotment for purchase of new books before the end of the financial year !

As one approaches the new arrivals corner of the library , there’s the distinct ambiance of a posh books store . Picked up the latest novel of Upamanyu Chatterjee “The Revenge of the Non-Vegetarian ” and not disappointed at all.

The setting is similar to ‘English August’ and ‘The Mammaries of a Welfare State’. A young anglophile bureaucrat in a rural district moving about as a detached observer looking on everything minutely at times incredulously yet not being judgmental.   He just goes about doing his sarkari stuff like  a true karma yogi.

The title is rather misleading. In the polarized world we inhabit today, mental auto-fill would complete the title to “revenge of the non-vegetarian ….against vegetarians” ; and nothing could be far from truth. If anything , it is the revenge of a forced vegetarian against well to do, practicing non vegetarians. After all , in India most non vegetarians are forced into vegetarianism not by religion or politics but sheer economics.

The plot revolves around a crime in a fictional province of India ,Narmada Pradesh, in India easily identifiable as Madhya Pradesh with some characteristics of Bihar and Bengal thrown in. A servant bludgeons to death the entire family of his employer for some beef stew and some grudge against not being fed properly .

The rest of the story is about the predictable but long meandrous course that the justice system is India takes. The crime is committed in 1949 and there is some kind of conclusion in 1973.  For some reason the protagonist , a passionate lover of all kinds of meat, vows to turn vegetarian till the culprit is hanged.

As it happens, it is not just the lawyers, but every criminal is well aware of the loopholes in the justice system in India. An accused can keep prolonging the trial and conviction.  Even after conviction and sentence, there is a whole series of hurdles before the sentence becomes final. For someone sentenced to death, there are special provisions for appeals and confirmations ; the whole process goes on for years till the final relief comes through mercy petitions to the President of India. For the record, there are over 350 prisoners on death row and only four were hanged in the past 15 years. A passing thought on the present status of persons convicted in the horrendous  Delhi rape case of 2012, prompted me to google; to find that the law is still on its course to justice. The juvenile culprit, who is now no more a juvenile, even by the dubious records of Indian Census  has already walked free.

Coming back to Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel, the narrative is almost in  slow motion, gently moving on from one scene to another, with hardly any twists or turns. Yet the book is “un-putdownable “. It is like a series of haiku poems just describing the scenes in detail and leaving the actions and dialogues  to the imagination of the readers.

There is plenty of black humour as always, in this case the gallows humour is not just figurative but literal.  He talks of the ‘never say die attitude ‘ of a death row convict fighting through the legal system to stay alive.

It is published by Speaking Tiger publications and the hard bound edition costs
₹ 350/-. Oh, I love libraries !

Dr M Scott Peck has many bestsellers beginning with “The Road Less Traveled” and two others with similar titles. “Beyond Road Less Traveled’ and ‘Further Along Road Less Traveled’. For a full list of his books see here.

an earlier post on a book by Dr Peck . here

His books traverses though fields far beyond psychiatry and goes deep into mysticism and philosophy. He has also done some pioneering work in Community Building. His ideas and experiences in this field are covered in his “Different Drums”.

Dr Peck says, It is community building that would save the world. The world today is getting more and more pluralistic and differences are getting sharper by day, there is an effort to make people think and behave in a uniform manner. This is not going to work. The idea is to accept the differences and may be even celebrate them. This is not something new in India, but where we go wrong is in being very selective about accepting the differences or weird behaviour. A naga sadhu is considered too weird, which he is, while whole communities taking over a public road to pray, which is as weird , is not considered so. Probably, the only criteria to accept weirdness should be “does this behaviour threaten or inconvenience other citizens ?” If so , it cannot be accepted .

The approach to community building is designed to work for the smallest community, ie a nuclear family and also the largest community that we know today, the global community.

As long as one doesn’t threaten or inconvenience others, all ideas, clothing ,or lack of it, behaviour and life style should be perfectly okay.

The book is organized into seventeen chapters in three parts. The first part talks of characteristics of a community and problems in community building. The second part is aptly The ‘bridge’. It dwells on the human nature on dealing with situations. and Part III suggests solutions. In a book of this nature, it is better to go directly into the source before trying to explain.

Here are some excerpts from the book. These excerpts are from my highlights while reading the book. These are given as block quotes , while my own annotations are in red italics.

……..Secure though it was, my home was not a place where it was safe for me to be anxious, afraid, depressed, or dependent— to be myself……

At some place the author claims , the entire aim of evolution of an individual is to be himself or herself.

As it happens a child is exactly that. That is one reason Indian Philosophers have suggested “be child like”

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 61

Community is and must be inclusive. The great enemy of community is exclusivity. Groups that exclude others because they are poor or doubters or divorced or sinners or of some different race or nationality are not communities; they are cliques— actually defensive bastions against community.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 61 There was no pressure to conform.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 62 Our individualism must be counterbalanced by commitment.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 65 Begin to appreciate each others’ gifts, and you begin to appreciate your own limitations.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 65 : a group of people do these things— as they become a community— they become more and more humble, not only as individuals but also as a group— and hence more realistic. From which kind of group would you expect a wise, realistic decision: an arrogant one, or a humble one?

 Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 67 : Once a group has achieved community, the single most common thing members express is: “I feel safe here.”

 Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 67 : everyone enters a new group situation with his or her guard up.

Chapter III gives the characteristics of a community; inclusive, non-judgmental and non threatening. The corollary is that once you feel you ‘belong’, the guard is down.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 68
health and wholeness and holiness. (All three words are derived from the same root.)
 Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 68
When we are safe, there is a natural tendency for us to heal and convert ourselves.
Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 68
So they focus not so much on healing as on making their relationship a safe place where the patient is likely to heal himself.
 Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 68
are free to discard defenses, masks, disguises; free to seek your own psychological and spiritual health; free to become your whole and holy self. A LABORATORY FOR PERSONAL DISARMAMENT

In a community as visualized in this book, there is absolutely no effort to heal or convert. Normally when we are tolerant and sympathetic to someone having different views, there is an underlying assumption that the other person is sick and needs to be healed.

Dr Peck lays great importance to vulnerability. A child does not hide its vulnerability to her mother, though among playmates there may be an air of arrogance or bravado. Dr Peck goes to the extent of suggesting that for two nations to reconcile their differences they need to expose their weakness rather than arm themselves literally and figuratively. I am sure when people or close enough to one another they are not really looking to project their best appearance or behaviour. That is when one really feels at home, irrespective of the place be it an office, restaurant or a Temple. Today, one may include a social media group also. Are you part of the group to sermonize or seek information or just to be yourself and enjoy the warmth of the real community on a virtual platform.

Chapter III: The True Meaning of Community > Page 74
even the agnostic and atheist members will generally report a community- building workshop as a spiritual experience.

One area where there are profound differences is Religious beliefs. Replacing religious ‘isms’ spiritualism helps. Though many people don’t believe in spirit either , most people have experienced ‘out of the world’ feelings for which they are at loss to give a label.

Chapter IV: The Genesis of Community > Page 79
But I am reminded of the Chinese word for crisis, which consists of two characters: one represents “danger” and the other “hidden opportunity.

Interesting take on the word “crisis’

The author warns of pseudo community where everyone is polite to each other but the warmth would be missing. In a true community , there would be differences, there would be conflicts, every member may be becoming more and more of himself or herself, yet there would be not tolerance but acceptance of the individuality of others. There would be no conformity to generally accepted ideas , yet the conflicts would cease to be.

It is tempting to go into the complete book, which besides being a boring sermon may impinge on the Intellectual Property rights. I have uploaded my notes on the book in pdf form on my website , more for my reference than to be part of this post. I wind up with one final excerpt from Chapter IX. Dr Peck has categorized the evolution of individuals into four stages, based on his own experience.

Chapter IX: Patterns of Transformation > Page 188
Again it didn’t compute— until I realized that we are not all in the same place spiritually. With that realization came another: there is a pattern of progression through identifiable stages in human spiritual life. I myself have passed through them in my own spiritual journey. But here I will talk about those stages only in general, for individuals are unique and do not always fit neatly into any psychological or spiritual pigeonhole. With that caveat, let me list my own understanding of these stages and the names I have chosen to give them: STAGE I: Chaotic, antisocial STAGE II: Formal, institutional STAGE III: Skeptic, individual STAGE IV: Mystic, communal

 

Stage I is “who says”. There is disorder. One questions everything, every rule, every tradition or convention.

Stage II One is reconciled to following some rules imposed by an institution; may be a family, religious order, army . There is a need here for rigid beliefs to sustain the accepted behaviour.

Stage III One becomes skeptical about religion, and rules imposed by institutions, but acceptable behaviour holds.

Stage IV It is all mysticism and communal .Incidentally, ‘communal’ is not at all a bad word in this book. One is comfortable with God, religion, yours and others. One willingly works for the community without any induced incentives or threats.

Just as with any views, one may or may not agree with Dr Peck. But reaching the Stage IV for individuals as defined by the author appears to be a desirable goal. If nations follow this approach to community buiding, there would be no Wars of yesteryears or conflicts as they call it today.

Thathastu.

When a scientist explores mysticism or when a Mystic contemplates a science laboratory, it produces astounding results. Though to a western trained mind it might sound rather strange , Science and Religion or Mysticism need not be mutually exclusive. After all where Physics ends where   Metaphysics starts and   Psychology and Parapsychology do overlap. So it is natural that many scientists stray into the zone of philosophy and vice versa. The fourteenth Dalailama is a passionate student of Science and Technology. He has initiated a number  of studies to explore Buddhist methods on training of mind through the prism of Science. Some of the other books where Science and Mysticism overlap are :

•         The Tao of Physics by  Fritjof Capre
•          Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig
•          Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body By Daniel Goleman

These days, some of the top bestsellers are books on self-improvement. At some stage , everyone gets motivated to read books on self improvement and a good number of people do try and practice what these books advocate. Most of these books talk of positive thinking and positive attitude. It’s like a magic wand. Believe it can be done and it is done. Phew, easy does it. Anyone can. Be a winner. In this group what stands out is one book which started simply with a sentence  “Life is difficult” . It is a paragraph by itself. It is not a book that says think strong and you will be strong , think you are rich and wealth will follow. It is a kind of admission that life was indeed difficult and one had to face it. That was the first step to relief or Nirvana.

The book is  “The Road Less Traveled by Dr Scott M Peck. When I started reading ,it proved to be an unputdownable book. Later , I learnt that, the first paragraph was taken from Buddhist philosophy , the first of the four noble truths ‘reality of suffering’”. You can find the influence of Zen Buddhism as well as ideas of Christian Philosophy through out this book and other books by the author.

Dr Peck was trained in Psychology and he did a stint with US Army for 9 years rising to the rank of a Lt Col. Later he practiced as a psychiatrist at Connecticut (USA).Though he was born in a protestant  family, he had a secular upbringing. Later, he developed interest in Zen Buddhism and Islamic Mysticism before he was drawn to Christianity. He was Baptized at the age of 43, in the year 1980. to hear it in his own words

……..Even though I was raised in an extremely secular home, as I look back on it, I was a freakishly religious kid, although not specifically Christian. And always I felt God to be in the background, always benign, never paid him or her that much attention, specifically, but felt him or her very much there. Christianity meant nothing to me as an adolescent, but in adolescence I fell in love with Eastern mystical writings, and then very gradually evolved from them to more attention to the Jewish and Muslim mystics, and then only finally to Jesus making more sense as I was moving toward writing The Road Less Traveled, when I was about 35 or so. I was a mystic first, and a Christian second. And I entered the Christian church through the back door of Christian mysticism, or maybe the top door, whichever way you want to look at it.

My baptism was in a number of ways a real kind of death for me, as it is supposed to be. And one of the reasons it was a death for me was that by declaring myself a Christian, I was declaring myself not to be Buddhist, not be Jewish, not be Hindu, not be Muslim, and as if I was casting disparagement upon traditions that had deeply nurtured me. So that was just one way in which my baptism represented a death in that I declared myself and regretfully in many ways. …..

Naturally , his first book was a on Psychology liberally  laced with the idea of faith, goodness, evil , God, religion and such terms not normally associated with Psychology as a Science. Random House, where the then little-known psychiatrist first tried to publish his original manuscript, turned him down, saying the final section was “too Christ-y.”

When finally published, it was was an instant hit. So what is this book about ?

The book consists of four parts. In the first part Peck examines the notion of discipline, which he considers essential for emotional, spiritual, and psychological health, and which he describes as “the means of spiritual evolution”. The elements of discipline that make for such health include the ability to delay gratification, accepting responsibility for oneself and one’s actions, a dedication to truth, and “balancing”. “Balancing” refers to the problem of reconciling multiple, complex, possibly conflicting factors that impact on an important decision—on one’s own behalf or on behalf of another. The discipline here is quite different from army discipline where it is all about appearance and obedience. To Dr Peck, Discipline is only about how you keep the promises you made to yourself.

In the second part, Dr Peck talks of ‘Love;. First he follows the Indian idea of ‘Neti Neti’(not this, not this) ; a process of examining various theories and eliminating them one by one in search of Truth. He eliminates certain popular conceptions of ‘what is love’ to label them as ‘romantic love’ , ‘dependency’ and so on. Then he tries to list down the  attributes of Love; devoting a chapter for each attribute , illustrating with case studies.

Dr Peck argues that “true” love is rather an action that one undertakes consciously in order to extend one’s ego boundaries by including others or humanity, and is therefore the spiritual nurturing—which can be directed toward oneself, as well as toward one’s beloved.

In the third part Peck deals with religion, and the commonly accepted views and misconceptions concerning religion. He recounts experiences from several patient case histories, and the evolution of the patients’ notion of God, religion, atheism—especially of their own “religiosity” or atheism—as their therapy with Peck progressed.

The fourth and final part concerns “grace“, the powerful force originating outside human consciousness that nurtures spiritual growth in human beings. In order to focus on the topic, he describes the miracles of health, the unconscious, and serendipity—phenomena which Peck says:

•  nurture human life and spiritual growth,
• are incompletely understood by scientific thinking,
• are commonplace among humanity,
• originate outside the conscious human will.

He concludes that “the miracles described indicate that our growth as human beings is being assisted by a force other than our conscious will”

Overall, the book gives no shortcuts to success. In fact  even the word ‘success’ is conspicuous by its absence.  What he aims at is to attain more efficiency, balance, better productivity, emotional stability , better inter personal relationships and spiritual development. If all these can be achieved, I suppose success as commonly understood should follow.