Category: Misc

Is Patriarchy sustained by matriarchs?

I am aware that  I might ruffle a few feathers with this idea , may touch a raw nerve somewhere; but I ramble on hoping that nobody takes offence. As always , I assert my right to be wrong. After all, I am the sole Mark  Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey of this blog space. I can modify  or delete the post or any comments… ha ha.

 Most families, even if not living as the traditional joint families , have somebody calling the shots on shastra sampradaya. Shastra is a set of rules wherein at most the interpretation can be different while the rules are by and large fixed. Sampradaya refers to traditions that  can be bent ,  broken or twisted beyond recognition..after there is no appeal to “aise hi hota hai hamare ghar men”. This is where the grand ma scores .

In Tamil country , you will have a paatti in command and you can’t imagine a Punjabi family without a beeji. So is it in every other part of the country .

What’s the grand pa doing ? After all he is the one logically supposed to be  imposing  ‘Patriarchy’.

Most likely , post retirement, men become a kind of manpower (pun intended) surplus to the establishment, as we say in the army. The manpower is there without any power; that leaves the man.

He is generally occupied with activities like golf(in the army) or reading newspapers , walks etc. He does make some noise now and then to show his presence, but mostly it’s when he misplaces his reading glasses or when he finds someone sitting on his favourite chair . He has neither the inclination nor the energy to impose his will on the family leave alone the extended family.

It’s the biji or paatti who constantly keep evaluating the pecking order. She decides which are the ‘must attend’ functions and which one can be given a pass. Along with this one has to decide on the price range of gifts and so on. If the function is hosted by the family , then the scope of work becomes too complex. You need to cover who all should be invited. Then comes the subtle divisions in hierarchy wherein  invitees are classified…just send invitation, invitation followed by phone call, personal visit and personal visit with appropriate gifts.

It is not just restricted to social and religious functions but pervades through every activity in a joint family.

With all these subtle and some not so subtle maneuvers, one ensures that the classic values of a patriarchal society are propagated and sustained.

Ok, then shouldn’t it be called matriarchy? Here’s the catch; all decisions are taken for the benefit of her sons and grandsons, directly or indirectly. It is also  ensured that daughters in law and sometimes even daughters don’t overstep their briefs.

What about male domination at the work place? It is there , but it is just male domination , not patriarchy , right ? Even if it resembles so, it just goes to prove that the seeds of male domination anywhere, is sowed at home, yes.., by the matriarchs!

I rest my case.

Is it wrong to say that so far, it is the family matriarchs who have been sustaining patriarchy.

That’s the story so far.

Where do we go from here ?

Women of my generation , ie senagers   (senior citizens who want to live like teenagers, or shall we say ,cool seniors) are the first lot to have had a full career and are financially well placed to lead an independent life.

Rightly or wrongly they do not have many children and grand children to boss over. They have enough interests outside family issues to keep them occupied.

It remains to be seen whether they will still  like to wield power over their shrinking brood , however small or tiny, and if so, will sons continue to get preferential treatment.

I don’t think it is likely. There ends patriarchy.. feminism or no feminism.

Today I saw a full page advt on TOI. Normally I flip over these pages to get to the main news / editorials. Something caught my eyes in the advt. It was about festival of lights and it showed a lady with lots of gold on but the all important bindi missing.

When we grew up almost everything was expected to be done as per some shastra. There was a right way and wrong way to do anything.

A bath meant you start pouring water from head to toe rather than start with feet; washing upper part of the body using the right hand and lower part with the left. Eating meant , your left hand not touching any food or the plate. When you leave the house you say ” I’ll come’ rather than “I’ll go”.

No doubt we questioned everything; nobody stopped us from questioning. When appa used to go to the barber’s , he used to take either my brother or me; not both  . I started pestering him “why not both ” . For some days he avoided the question and one day he had to blurt out” both of you don’t get a haircut on the same day as it is done only when your father dies”. I never asked again.

At the kitchen , whether it is grinding for dosai or pouring oil around dosai on the tawa, it was always done clockwise and never the other way round. On deepawali you make 2 or 4 bakshanams and for shrardh you make three of everything , vegetables, sweetmeats etc; never never the other way round.

Why ?

Everything was clearly divided into mangalam and amangalam. (Auspicious and inauspicious) or shubh and ashubh.

I have hardly seen my sisters or mother with hair open except when they had to oil and re-plait their hair. (Only when there was a tragedy at home , hair was left un-plaited)

Let’s not gloat that today’s youngsters are liberated; may be they are free from the traditional shastras; but they have got caught in a nastier trap.

They do everything as per cool-shastra , written probably by some Swami Chillananda! Just like the binaries of earlier times, today we divide everything into cool and not so cool.

Details may vary from place to place..but there are clear divisions. Shower is cool , bucket bath is not. Open hair is cool, plaited hair or coiffures are not. Makeup is cool but bindi is not. Dating is cool, arranged marriage is not. Festivities are cool but rituals are not. In weddings, Mehndi and sangeet are cool but havan is not. Panchakacham and madisaar are cool as a fashion statement but not cool when done to follow traditions.

Sounds like an old man rambling on about the good old days when Sun was Sun and Moon was Moon.

I don’t suggest going back in time, after all, most of these rules affect the personal life of women and girls most and men are less affected and even traditional rituals by and large suit them.

Sure, we need to look ahead.

What I find disturbing is that even on a day like deepawali or wedding in the family , a basic feature indicating shubh , like a bindi is frowned upon.

Why call it deepawali at all when you find diya not cool.

Why call it a hindu wedding when a havan (and the accompanying smoke) is frowned upon. Why put the parents through events like sangeet and mehendi when the core part of the rituals “kanyadaan” is a strict no-go.

Let there be some basic decorum as one follows in the corporate world.

This is just one aspect of the issue ; who decides what is cool and what is not. Is it really the individual’s choice ? I mean the young and some not so young cool kids. (and those who say age is just a number; don’t ask their knees, knees don’t lie) . I doubt. Mostly they are dancing to the tunes set by the people who  influence social behaviour.

Social influencers do decide how you live. Apart from others, advertising world influences social behaviour the most. Commercials in turn or influenced by social behaviour. One feeds on the other and supports the other moving about like two drunk sailors who don’t know who is supporting whom.

On the  issue of bindi , I recall a story from a noted marketing guru Ambi Parameshwaran’s book For God’s sake. He had made a commercial featuring a girl in a health club. Before releasing it,  he is apprehensive if the idea would go well with the target audience as the girl was sporting a tiny bindi. Was it cool ? Do modern women (then modern) who frequent health clubs consider it cool? Those days , video editing software apps were not so advanced to edit it out. Finally he let it go as it was and it worked.

Today it may not. Our opinions are just the output of the thousands of visuals  we are bombarded with on SM , TV and now even print media. (text is passe; scope of TLDR is getting narrower and narrower) Today even a math text book is colorful and full of graphics!

 So what do we do ?

The least we can do is to stop insulting festivals and cultural, religious events by referring to them by the traditional names. We may have to coin some new words, like gold festival; like the chocolate day etc . Youngsters are quite imaginative if not well informed. As Deepawali becomes some thing celebrated with no bindi, open hair, sans diya , sans fireworks it might as well be called something else. With the kind of makeups and attires becoming cool, what comes to mind is ‘Halloween’ !

Medicos are fond of acronyms and mnemonics. This starts in their college days in an effort to remember the names of myriad nerves and blood vessels and carries on through their medical practice.

One popular mnemonic to remember the 12 cranial nerves ..
Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, to touch and feel very good velvet. Such heaven!
There are more explicit versions for this. I didn’t make them up. Ask Google!

The term DABDA was coined by Dr Elizabeth Kubler Ross to study how people cope up with approaching death.

She divided the process into five distinct stages , Denial , Anger, Bargain, Depression and Acceptance.

Later, psychologists have found that these stages apply to almost any problem faced by a human being. The trigger could be a bank statement showing low balance or your child’s mark-sheet showing poor performance. Or it could be lab report showing high sugar-levels. I can’t count the number of times I have blamed my (blood pressure)BP instrument for showing high BP. This attitude only resulted in the BP shooting further up.

The first reaction is invariably denial. Some people would rush to the banker or the teacher that there was something wrong with the report ; some serious error in arithmetic, may be.

Once it is seen that there is nothing wrong with the calculations, the next stage starts. There is anger ; anger at anybody who could be blamed. If it is about the child’s report card, the parents may blame each other, the teacher, the noisy neighborhood or even Mark Zuckerberg for the effect of Instagram on children.

The third stage is bargain. One is prepared to negotiate with rewards and punishments.

The fourth stage is depression. When it dawns on the person that the problem was there and one has to confront it.

The final stage is acceptance , one that brings calmness. Then one does what can be done to alleviate the problem and accepts that which cannot be altered.

Over the years , I have seen this process playing out  in myself and in others over many issues.

Here’s a recent happening that made me recall DABDA .

Observing an overflow of a sewage tank onto the road, I brought it to the notice of the concerned housing society.

The first reaction was that it was just rain water and was not sewage water at all.

Subsequently, everyone was blamed for various acts of commissions and omissions that resulted in damage to their well laid out overflow pipe line. If it was just rain water flowing on the street, why bring in the issue of damage to overflow pipe?

These stages often overlap. Even while hovering between denial and anger the third stage also kicked in. We’ll pump out the water but you make your drains. This was followed by some ugly veiled threats that the road itself could be blocked .

Why do I analyse? The problem does not go away by mere analysis, but understanding helps calm the mind.

Whatever be, the first step to solving any problem is acceptance that there was a problem and that noone else but you could solve it.

Thathasthu.

(Written sitting in a doctor’s waiting room)

The question looks absurd. When do you go to  a doctor ? Whenever you have some medical problem ; it does sound obvious.

Reality is something different. Many of us would have heard stories as how ‘so and so’ neglected a problem and let it aggravate so much that it has resulted in some permanent damage or worse.

Have you come across stories of how going to a doctor or a hospital has caused irredeemable damage to one’s health as well as to the bank balance? Not very often .

How many people are going about with stents when they don’t really  need them ? How many people have overpaid the hospitals for necessary treatment and not so necessary treatment? We will never know. How many of us have been worrying sick about some disease that we never had ?

In an ideal world, when a medical problem crops up , be it  a fever or a fracture; you go to the appropriate specialist and he makes a quick and  accurate diagnosis and fixes it.

But it is never an ideal world. Say, you see some rashes on your skin; first you ignore it and when it starts itching too much , you go for an OTC ointment. Instead of getting better ,it might get worse.

You then see decide to see a doctor. Well, it could be a fungal infection or a symptom for any underlying condition like diabetes. The blood tests start. The complete blood count might throw up other issues.

Then you see a dermatologist as well who would focus on his area of specialization.

After months or even years of going about blood tests and experimenting with diets (allergens) one is still not sure of the cause for the rashes. I am aware of a case where the reason for a chronic skin problem was finally traced to a tooth decay; yes, once the bad tooth was extracted, everything was hunky-dory .

If you are lucky , you find the problem or else you keep going to every specialist, go through a battery of tests, undergo many experiments on medicines , diets and life style changes  all the while paying your way through every experiment . The mental stress one goes through , sitting in doctors ‘  waiting rooms is something not quantifiable.

It is under these circumstances that one has think ten times before seeing the first doctor, as once you get into the conveyor belt, it’s difficult to come out ,half-way. It’s like Hotel California ; you can check in but not check out.

All these problems can occur when the doctors and hospitals are very well meaning.

Again we are living in anything but an ideal world. Hospitals are run with profit motive and every expensive equipment has to earn it’s cost from the patients. The insurance company , that you have thoughtfully bought medical insurance  from has to cut costs by finding loopholes in your claim.

You can’t change the external world. Only thing you have some degree of control is over your own actions.

So, from the miracle of modern medicines we are back to basics ; regular exercises, moderate diet, good sleep and good air and water. Not surprisingly most doctors give this piece of advice for free, along with their expensive prescriptions.

Dhoop ,paani, mithi, hawa;
Kayi rogon ka yahi dawa.

Sunshine,Water,Earth, Air
The ultimate remedy to many an ailment.

 

Cont from previous post.  

It was the year 1990, after spending 30 years of my life ,going through all kinds of rigorous physical activities, one fine day , I suddenly found myself gasping for breath after 5 minutes of jogging.

Like a good soldier , I reported to the military hospital in the town. Military hospitals , unlike civil hospitals are very liberal about admissions. I was straight away taken in as an in-patient. After some routine blood tests and x-rays , and observation for about a week, the medical specialist gave the diagnosis as ” acute bronchial asthma”

A point here is that in Army, downgrading medical category is much easier than providing treatment to underlying medical problems. That is one reason you will find many soldiers ‘golfing fit’ and ‘ cocktail worthy’ but not fighting fit. To be declared fighting fit , one has to be fit not just for routine  activities, but fit enough for abuse of the body under all kinds of weather and terrain including a stint at Siachin .

Coming back to my story , I was declared unfit for combat . This kind of down-gradation also meant that I was unfit for doing any training courses and for any promotions. More than anything, I could not attend the much sought after Defence service Staff Course, that I had been nominated for after going through a tough selection process. 

That’s the time I realized that Allopathy has no ‘cure’ for Asthma . The physician who treated me was liberal enough to let me go without an immediate official down-gradation, giving me a chance to cure myself by means other than allopathy.

In those  non-internet days ,whatsapp like stories traveled by word of mouth. Soon I came to be aware of all kinds of weird treatments for asthma. The vegetarian solutions involved different kinds of grass and herbs being ground to a paste and consumed and the non-vegetarian ones went to the extreme of swallowing a fish alive. It was surprising that in one month I came to know so much about asthma than in my entire life. 

I also built up my asthma library to moderate the Whatsapp like stories. (I still have those books) I tried some herbs and exercises but no fish for me please ,cooked or alive. Then someone told me about a place where such ‘incurable’ diseases were cured through yoga exercises.

I had a brief  leave period at Madras, before heading for Wellington, which incidentally enjoys the kind of salubrious climate that is anathema for asthma patients. I headed for Krishnamachari Yogamandiram at Mylapore, run by Shri Kesavachari, son of Shri Krishnamachari ( who was the Guru for both  his son and his younger brother  who is now globally well-known as BKS Iyengar).

Here one must note that Indian systems like Ayurveda or Yoga treat each body as unique and prescribes such treatment that would benefit that person . There is no general remedies like Aspirin for headache or Gelusil for Acidity.

Shri Krishnamachari examined me and prescribed a few breathing exercises. He was not happy that I was available only for two to three sessions to learn the exercises. All the same, he advised me to learn them properly and follow the routine religiously. When I asked him as to the how long will it take to see some results, he, like a mystic , was totally non-committal. He said, “Have faith and just follow the routine”. There was no ‘dosage’.

Not very scientific sounding; obviously there has been no empirical study on the effect of this treatment on a cross section of patients.

So started the regime. It involved getting at five in the morning and doing    the exercises , on empty stomach, that took about forty minutes to complete. Then I had to wait for half an hour before the first intake of any food or drink for the day. 

At Wellington (Ooty), we had a very hectic routine and it was not very pleasant to follow this routine 24×7. Nevertheless, I kept at it . In the beginning ,breathlessness occurred on any light physical exertion like jogging ; but gradually there was improvement and I could play tennis for short periods. I always had asthelin and deriphylin in my wallet, the must have medicines for an asthmatic. I used the medicines very very sparingly, and avoided the inhaler altogether. By the end of the year I could complete a five KM run , a mandatory test, with just only one asthalin tablet . I had come a long way on the path to recovery.

Subsequently, I stopped the exercises, but whenever I had to patrol in the mountainous areas, I went to back to the morning routine . 

Later I had been posted to high altitude areas and have patrolled at 17000 feet, without serious impediments; though I did have  some problems going over steep ascents with heavy loads. In one such situation, what helped me was not my tablets but pure mountain honey ,(eaten with the honeycomb), offered by a Bakarwal (shepherds of Pir Panjal Ranges).

What’s the conclusion ?

             Had I closed my mind to everything other than allopathy, it is without doubt that I would have left active soldiering in 1990, and would still be keeping an inhaler at hand and accepting the situation as unavoidable.

           Allopathic drugs like Asthelin and Deriphylin definitely helped as short term emergency remedies along with availability of oxygen therapy if and when required. But I did not have to go beyond an odd tablet during a bout of breathlessness. 

           Today, if I face a medical emergency would I look only to ayurveda and Yoga ? Not necessarily, particularly for immediate relief. But for any long term effect, I would definitely explore all  systems for healthy living. 

A point to note is that Pathanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga starts with yama and niyama or in simple words Dos and Donts . Many diseases can be prevented or controlled by only these yama and niyama before going on to pranayama and yogasan.

These Dos and Donts that run opposite of what is considered good living are not very popular, understandably.

But the way I look at it , today, I can do anything or abstain from anything just to avoid swallowing some chemicals to achieve a short term or immediate relief. 

The western system analyses and treats diseases. Our indian system studies health to arrive at Dos and Donts for a healthy living. This is what the West would call Preventive Healthcare. If only we can follow our system of healthcare, it is quite possible that there would be no need ever to look to allopathy.

There is a lot of discussions , no not discussion, mostly derision, on Ayurveda as an alternative medicine. 

Looking back, personally I have relied more on Ayurveda , though I am not against allopathy when the situation demands. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses and I am sure they can complement each other.

It’s a moot point which of these systems should be called the ‘main’ and which one the alternative. But then, where English is the main language and our own languages, however rich, are classified as vernaculars, anything can happen.

I am reminded of a project I was part of, in the early nineties.

I was posted at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand , a place that had the personal attention of the then Army Chief Gen BC Joshi. Pithoragarh is a military station close to the Chinese borders where huge chunks of land,over 2000 acres, had been acquired by the Ministry of Defence post 1962, for army units.

Later , a good part of that land became surplus to the establishment . Gen BC Joshi had great ideas of utilizing these pieces of land for various projects. One such project was Herbal Farms.

The basic idea was to cultivate various herbal plants , with focus on Himalayan flora with guidance from a Defence Agricultural Research laboratory located there. It was part of DRDO  manned and equipped  fot researching on high altitude agriculture and related subjects . The herbal products were to be supplied  to various pharma companies like Humdard and Dabur.

During a visit by the Chief, besides army commander and other senior officers, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister had also been invited. It was none other than our missile man Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

During an informal meeting over breakfast at the DRDO guest house, I had an opportunity to listen to a part of the discussions.

Dr Kalam was quite fascinated with the whole idea. I remember , him talking  excitedly about a herbal cure for cancer based on a plant called taxus buccata. The drug developed by Dabur had recently been cleared by US, (in circa 1993). The name dropped casually by the great man, had got stuck to my memory since then. It’s a different matter that we haven’t heard about it since then.

The discussions meandered along over various native herbs used at various parts of the country. There was also some talk by Dr Kalam of some herbs being used for family planning in the rural areas. 

After Gen BC Joshi’s untimely death the projects he had initiated had also died gradually.

If only we had had the will and a budget to support the idea of a Herbal Farm of that magnitude, it would have resulted in preservation and propagation of many rare medicinal herbs. Just as modern medicines suppress the immunity system of the body, the craze over allopathy has suppressed the native systems of medicine . Indians have simply forgotten to heal themselves.

In a broad sense, allopathy is a means to study and combat diseases ,while ayur veda or Yogasan deals with study of and preservation of health.  

As case of self fulfilling prophecy , the higher budgets world over has led to more research and more advancement in allopathic system. Lack of support has reduced ayurveda to a dubious, alternative system of medicine.

Today, for diagnosis , emergencies, and trauma care , allopathy is definitely  far ahead of any other system. In preventive health care and  non intrusive therapy, Ayurveda scores. Unfortunately , only people who cannot afford the high cost of western system of therapy opt for the native one. 

A point that is very much debatable is the ethical side of the western system. It encourages people to break every rule of healthy living as they believe health can be bought from Hospitals and to a great extent, it is true. Health is bought and sold by Hospitals though the rates are driven by  insurance and pharma companies .

In the next post, I shall write about my own experiences in facing a serious health challenge.