Category: Misc

Today we see a whole range of labels ; old labels  and new labels ; and also many old labels acquiring new meanings..

Anyone expressing an opinion on any issue is slotted into some rigid compartment and each compartment has a name for what they call themselves and what others call them, for eg anyone calling himself a ‘pure vegetarian ‘ may be called a racist or a bigot  by a ‘ liberal’ who himself would be labelled a woke by a ‘traditionalist’.

Identities and labels could be global or local; like Liberals, Indian liberals, libertarian, dem , republicans, wokes, Islamists, christoislam, sanghi, hindutvavadi, secularists, feminists , feminazi, black feminists, leftists , rightists, raita wing, trads and so on.

For the unversed , please follow the link to understand the ‘raita wing’ or Rayta wing’ politics.

https://www.opindia.com/2022/01/trads-vs-raitas-and-rw-fights/

Most of these labels are so defined to make it look beautiful or ugly as seen by the definer.

To someone an idealist would mean a person of character pursuing lofty ideals .
To someone else it could mean an impractical, head in the air , useless person.

I feel any label is better understood when you can identify the antithesis, so as to be able to choose between the two.

Idealist or practical ?
Idealist or an opportunist ?

Secularism has different meaning to different people.

Are you a secularist or spiritualist? Makes sense to identify yourself as one or the other.

Secularism or communalism ? (Makes no sense to me but the Indian liberals define secularism as opposite of communalism which itself means just living in a community,any kind of community)

Secularism or equality of all religions ?

This question makes sense in India where secularism has come to mean privilege for certain religions.

I would definitely choose ‘equality for all religions ‘ over ‘Indian  secularism’.

When it comes to finances,

What is ‘saving’ ?    Mostly it is taken as opposite of spending.

Can it mean something else, say the opposite of investment, or sheer indifference to money ; that precludes any conscious saving , spending or investment ?

The winds from the West are blowing all over, unsettling anyone  not anchored to his  roots.

‘Living’ in modern times means following your passion, following your interests and living for yourself.

Paropakaram idam shareeram is an ancient Indian concept.

Well, a libertarian idea of ‘living ‘ appears to mean ‘death ‘
as seen by  Swami Vivekananda .

Nurturing your gifts of talents is wonderful ; but  what purpose does it serve if that talent is not used freely and unconditionally to help the community or the surroundings such as to include humans, animals and vegetation?

Share whatever you have ;  knowledge,  wealth, or a  state  of peace and tranquillity . Serve unconditionally.

That’s also a way to enjoy life, perhaps that is living.

 

We left the flaming dragons quite late at night or may be early in the morning with a strong hangover of some spirited dancing .

 

But some of us were keen for a morning walk along the  famous promenade beach.

 

 

Satya was busy doing a  brisk walk completing his 10,000 steps , 4 Km or whatever, while OV, Venkatesh and I had a leisurely stroll along the promenade taking time for selfies.

 

 

Flaming dragons was a surprise event for most of us.

Later I learnt from Gnana that it was in their plans to include a visit to the youngsters dream place to shake a leg after dinner!

The original plan was was limited to 3-4 guys and when the ‘boys’ started piling into the cars, the number was almost ten . I for one had decided to give it a miss on Saturday as we , in any case were going there on Sunday.

So we proceeded with Gnana leading the way on a scooter with me on the pillion and the cars following.

I will never be able to say if it was right on our part to have accepted the generous offer from Gajan and Gnana for a free entry to a place where other  revellers had to pay an entry fee of Rs 2000/ or so.

It was a kind of gate crash into a party and we all trooped in . Baburaj and Ilango straight away got into the dance floor and others followed.

There were only 20 plus and 60 plus dancers and nothing in between. Seeing the mood of Ashokarajan , one could have grouped him with the 20 plus. It was absolutely a feeling of shedding of the years at least temporarily . For some reason our ladies didn’t seem to share the spirit of adventure or may be ‘boys’ never grow up. Only Divya, the young lady was there enjoying the beats .

Whatever, it was an experience of a lifetime and even those who didn’t hit the dance floor were mentally there.

For me it was a proof that you don’t need spirit inside you to bring out the spirit ! Energy was flowing freely , so visible and so was the spirit of camaraderie. A great event to remember for ever !

Here are some videos

 

Veshti (வேஷ்டி) is  a  humble piece of cloth that was worn by kings and commoners for centuries in Tamilnadu. Now only a small group of boomers and some politicians from Southern India are keeping the flag flying high ( or is it flying low ?)

Prime Minister Deve Gowda at Moscow 1997 at a wreath laying ceremony . It was a cold windy day ; a solemn occasion and the only sounds heard were the sounds of fluttering of the flags and the Indian PM’s Veshti.  (Quoting from a newspaper report 🙂  )  Photo : Courtesy AP.

Here we go

Firstly it is not veshti but vetti as it is called in Tamil. The cloth was woven as long pieces and then cut into pieces as required by people as per their needs . Vetti in Tamil means ‘ to cut’.

The Sanskrit lovers made it Veshti to make it sound sanskritised!

It is a simple white piece of cloth in cotton or silk worn by men , and in earlier times this was the only attire for men of all ages , all classes.

Though it’s worn as a wrap-around skirt style to cover the lower part of the body, it is actually a multipurpose cloth.

It can be a headgear or a waist band ; can be worn like a poncho to protect from cold or mosquitoes (Southern India enjoys a hot winter  and a hotter summer)

It is folded half mast to be worn like  a pair of shorts; oh, not a pair really.  With a little ingenuity, it is tied dhoti style to be a pair of trousers, shorts or something in between.

There are no buttons , pins, velcros or even knots to hold the garment  in place ; so how does it stay there ?

Easy does it.  While wrapping it around just suck in your waist and gently roll down the edge. There you are , it’s your breath that holds it in place to cover your modesty ! Hold your breath for a second and the breath holds the veshti for the whole day! Sounds nice !

A simple  search on you tube  would throw up visuals of the breath control involved in getting the garment in place .

Whatever, accidents or wardrobe malfunctions as they are called today do happen and a hand is always poised to stop the costume from slipping away. These days you have nice velcro belts with big brand names , available, but a puritan wouldn’t use these kind of crutches .

Wouldn’t it be boring to wear just white all day , all year around and where is creativity ?

Not really, veshtis have borders narrow or broad; that’s where creativity shows. You may have intricately made motifs on the borders. In ancient days these were made in gold and now it’s all plastic ,but the skill shows.

The border design  is also used to make a political statement. The Dravidian parties have made it a feature to wear their ideology on the veshti borders , not just on their sleeves as an angrez would say. So when a Tamil politician jumps party, he has to change his whole ward robe !

Then you have the color veshtis where each colour indicates the religious inclination; black for Ayyappa, Red for Parashakti etc.

What is really interesting is the Avtar s that a veshti takes after the original purpose is accomplished.  It is white, it is pure cotton and it’s fine. It is ideal for any kind of reuse from bedspread to bandages. The famous puthur traditional bone-setters use yards and yards of this kind of cloth .

Even about 50 years back a Tamil Brahmin housewife would have struggled without these worn out Veshtis. The cloth was white, fine and unstitched. It was used for all purposes like Idli cloth (anything steamed), drying papads in the sun, making jaangri ( imarti or the South Indian cousin of Jelebi).

Outside the kitchen , generally it was used as  hammock for the baby. (thooli as it is called in Tamil )

In short there was more demand for old veshti than for the new ones. There are husbands who keep searching for their veshti all over the place only to find that,  it has become a bedspread or hammock for the baby , too prematurely. God forbid, if the border had rich zari, a clever housewife would exchange it for some utensils at the first opportunity. There was a thriving industry for extraction of gold from veshti zari.

The only item of clothing that a man had to buy was veshti. This could also be gifted during functions as everyone used it and it was not only free-size but multipurpose.

Wish we go back to those times when life was simple.

The ancient Tamil poetess Avvaiyaar said ” உண்பது ஒரு நாழி,  உடுப்பது நான்கு முழம் “; Meaning one can eat  only about a cup of grains for food and four feet of fabric for covering ; but thoughts (desires) are in thousands bringing misery to man.

Man, that’s simplicity!

Are the activists keen to save this Earth listening?

On the lighter side, I can hear the advaitin expounding ” it’s all one , some call it veshti, some call it head gear or a waist band, some may call it idli cloth or hammock ; it’s all the same. The divine weaver weaves his magic cloth ; it’s all Maya !”

Tathastu

 

 

”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third and final blog on the series.

After analysing the pros and cons of WordPress Vs DIY, it was only logical to try out the DIY approach; so I tried.

Now I have a fully functional application developed from the scratch. Only razorpay has to be attached to go live .

Here’s a  short video clip showing how membership is renewed and policy is bought. The clip is under three minutes including explanations.

Video Link  for mobile phone users

Not a single word needs to be typed. The database is fully populated including the details of all beneficiaries. As a member logs in all his particulars are displayed.

Should take just about a minute or two even on a slow internet connection. I feel that’s how it should be.

200-500 users should be able to login and transact in a day.

Of course , there will be always more and more customization and features required. That’s the best part of a DIY approach. Once you have the framework ready , it is easy to customise it to your requirement , as every line of code is your own! 

If you have done any translation beyond high school compositions, you would have noticed ; it doesn’t need any profound word to confound you.

A simple usage of ‘dei’ in Tamil to address one is virtually untranslatable into English. Can’t be dude, hai, or hey..

A ‘dei’ in Tamil may indicates closeness, age of the addressee and the addresser, the mood, place , context and other things. Can any one English word convey all this ? Even a paragraph in English would not do justice.

If that be so, how have we accepted existing English words to translate Indic words like Dharma, devata, paramatma, Pooja, sampradaya, shastra and so on?

Bad translation in fiction is okay. These horrifying translations are used in our law books and constitution to interpret how I as a ‘hindoo’ live and how I may be ‘reformed’ to suit the global culture (meaning White Christian perception). Sadly , it is done by the mentally colonized ‘hindoos’.

Let’s take the word Dharma.

Indic civilization never believed in one right way to live.

Swami Vivekananda said

The proof of one religion depends on the proof of all the rest. It would be most unnatural to have only one way to Truth.

So we have the word Dharma broadly meaning duty, to manifest as Swadharma, rajdharma or varnashrama Dharma where varna can mean social divisions or stage of life. Whatever be , it differs from person to person and for the same person it changes with the stage of life and position in the society. What is an absolutely necessary ritual for a householder is meaningless if and when he reaches the stage of sanyasi.

(To get a perspective, compare this with a  Religious practice of a muslim. Can he ever outgrow the stage of doing namaz five times a day? )

The Europeans have something  they term as religion and denomination. Indic Civilization has no equivalent ideas.

Once you force Dharma to mean a religion, the entire understanding changes.
It become rigid with a need for a book, a place of worship  and some inviolable rituals that would be termed as Essential Religious Practices (ERP).

Call it by any name ,What difference does it make ?

Unfortunately, it makes a world of a difference.

As per Articles 25 and 26, a citizen has rights to practice and propagate his region, but he has no right to pursue a way of life.  Recently we have seen that the hizab protests have erupted to assert their right to practice their religion.

A practicing Muslim can demand his rights under these articles to wear hizab, take out a procession, occupy a public place for namaz, running a school the way he wants, demand for halal food ; and the list is endless.

Hindus can exercise any of their basic rights , not as hindus but as  common citizens,  only if they organize themselves into a religious group. For example if a small group of 20-30 people want to gather at a riverside for performing pind daan , they need to prove in the Court that the practice is essential for them.

Denomination is a word that basically relates to a christian sect, to indicate one of the 45000 sects globally; yes , people, there is no typo or any extra zero.

Followers of Jesus span the globe. But the global body of more than 2 billion Christians is separated into thousands of denominations. Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Apostolic, Methodist — the list goes on. Estimations show there are more than 200 Christian denominations in the U.S. and a staggering 45,000 globally, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

When two Christians talk about their faith the question that invariably pops up is “which church do you go to ?”

So to exercise a right to perform a ritual one needs to prove he follows a religion and then belongs to a denomination as understood by White Christians. Then you have to prove that all people who belong to a certain denomination need to practice such a ritual.

This could not be done in the case of Sabarimalai issue as Ayyappa followers are not a denomination and even if they are, not all temples of ‘Deity Ayyappa’ are same .

Hare Krishna !

Just bad translation of words resulting in gross miscarriage of justice. Today we ourselves are thinking in a language that misrepresents our identity and our way of life.

That’s how an entire civilization has been lost in Translation.