A great sense of wealth, ownership and pride floods my being these days. The cause of it is not to be found anywhere near the immediate surroundings of the said being but in the far away capital of God’s Own Country to which it has an umbilical cord connection. God’s Own Country is many times more that now than ever before and I am understandably elated , in the seventh heaven if there is such a place. Ever since the treasure has been tumbling out of the sacred , secret vaults of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple I am transformed beyond words. A terrible beauty is born. I can see a golden ring around my head , whether my fellow Mumbaikars see it or not. The excitement gives me momentary relief from the acute mental and emotional trauma which I have been passing through in the last two and a half months .
My actual acquaintance with the temple is minimal. A passing , by the way visit decades ago. A brief glimpse of the Ananthashayanam. Ditto for the capital city of GOC. A Palghatti goes more often to Chennai than to Thiruananthapuram. But the glory of Travancore , the nobility of its royalty and the loving reverence Their Highnesses still command were brought home to me mainly by my professor at Victoria, Dr.Padmini Nair from TVM whose rented house in Pgt I used to frequent to talk literature and also to bask in her love and affection .
Strangely, Thiruananthapuram became even more real to me when I read C. V.’s classic novel Marthanda Varma. Yes, I did manage it i.e. wading through the heavy prose and following the intricate plot and enjoying the beauties and lighter moments along the way. It turned out to be a fruitful exercise as well ,as much later, I could present a paper on it at a Seminar on ‘The Colonial Impact on Indian Literature’ organized by the English Dept. of the University of Mumbai. Marthanda Varma was inspired by and closely modelled on the great Scottish historical novelist Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe
The challenge for me was to make the novel appealing to an audience of mostly non- Malayalees with nil knowledge of Kerala history or the great names in it. It was the name , ‘Padmanabhan’ my husband’s name coincidently and thus my surname , that helped me make the bridge. I told them of the glory of the name in Kerala, especially in Trivandrum because of the ruling deity, Sree Padmanabha Swami. Marthanda Varma is the story of Padmanabhan versus Padmanabhan – Anantha Padmanabhan on behalf of / for Marthanda Varma against Padmanabhan Thampi alias Pappu for himself . Pappu as in Pappu Kalani, the politician with a criminal background from Ulhasnagar is well known name here. A reference to the Malayalam film ‘Kulam’ was another hook . But the real bomb at which some of the men in the audience woke up and took note was when I dropped the name of Bhanupriya who played the role of Subhadra , the iconic heroine of the novel.
From shoka came the sloka , says Valmiki. Great poetry is born out of pain and suffering or witnessing a scene of pain and suffering. Meppathur Narayana Bhattahiri’s Narayaneeyam is an instance of the first. If I were as divinely gifted as Valmiki or Meppathur I would have written a long ode to You, Sree Padmanabha , a poetic appeal to restore the joy of wellness & cheerful living to all those who, like my husband right now, are suffering from various debilitating ailments and disorientations. But , Lord, as You have not blessed me with the gift of poesy , hearken to my prayer in my poor prose laced a little with borrowed verse and bestow Aayurarogysoukhyam to all of Your creation.
Published in City Journal on 9th July, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Fun-damentalism - Part II
Food fundamentalisms in India can be classified along regional lines. The North- South divide is becoming less and less pronounced among the younger generations who are born into a more cosmopolitan cuisine not just in the metros but even in the small towns and interiors. But older palates are still very picky. I can speak with a degree of authority only on South , esp. Mallu food fetishes, as I personally suffer from some of them.
The general love of rice and rice and more rice in its myriad avatars morphing into breakfast , lunch, tea time snacks , dinner & supper is the most important of them. In this passion , the annachis are also with us. Rice extremists wont have any truck with chappathi, porotta or any wheat / maida creations. In whichever part of the world they find themselves they will look for idli,dosa, uthappa as they are made in Palakkad , Coimbatore or the original Udipi or Mangalore – not the type served in Udipi restaurants in Mumbai which are mongrels ! They would also condemn any sambhar that does not taste like their traditional fried-ground coconut , coriander, chilli,onion plus, plus masala concoction !
I mention Palakkad specially because that is where the idli had reached perfection in the form of the famous Ramasseri idli, though nowadays Ramasseri idli has only the appearance. The melting in the mouth and the out of the world taste is just a memory. It is just business and material for TV cookery shows, now. But folks raised in PGT have a higher standard in the matter of idlis than others. My Valiettan used to even surmise that we – the typical Palghatties especially of our family, Kenath – were born out of a giant idli ! The same could be said of our Thekkan friends vis-a vis puttu and kappa or about the Vadakkans and their pathiri…Mention of pathiri does not merely cause a craving in me but also triggers memories of my hostel life at Providence College, Calicut.
Next to food, come clothes and personal appearance.
The attraction of jeans and tops and such western wear for young girls is seen as a threat to Indian culture by the traditional Indian male. Hence sartorial and related fundamentalisms about what women should wear. Many Mallu males, for instance, hate lipstick and what they call ‘ the painted look’, abhor the ‘off- shoulder ’ tops, spaghetti straps & short skirts . Their fantasies are only about long hair, oiled and adorned with jasmine , figures fully draped in sarees or ‘set mundus’, and faces fair, shy and coy ! Among women there are the silk fundamentalists – the Kanjeepuram ,Pochempalli ,Benares, Murshidabad types- and the cotton queens, collectors of handlooms from all over the country . They are quite snooty about their taste and look down upon all other females who don’t share their textile theology.
Among the young I notice a new fire for the olden, golden practices, the aggressive championing of what was just routine in ancient / not so ancient times, like Yoga, Ayurveda , organic farming and so on. Last week a Mumbai-raised youngster gave me a sermon on the allopathic evil and the superiority of our own systems of medicine But he doesn’t seem to have heard of Ashtangahridayam on which the preparation of the kashayam he showed me was based ! Home birthing , I think , is the latest female fundamentalism that is catching on. On Amrita TV , I happened to listen to a young mother waxing evangelical about it. Home birthing was the norm some forty/fifty years ago in India and hospitalization was the exception. But now it is coming back , in a more self conscious and sophisticated garb. Very much like organic farming. There was only natural manure and natural farming in the 40s and even the 50s. Chemical fertilizers and insecticides were seen as saviours by farmers , then. But now they stand exposed as the enemies of the good earth and her children . Hence organic farming. Old wines in new bottles. Going back to nature , to the fundamentals of life. Not a bad trend . The only catch is the new bottles are a bit too expensive.
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The general love of rice and rice and more rice in its myriad avatars morphing into breakfast , lunch, tea time snacks , dinner & supper is the most important of them. In this passion , the annachis are also with us. Rice extremists wont have any truck with chappathi, porotta or any wheat / maida creations. In whichever part of the world they find themselves they will look for idli,dosa, uthappa as they are made in Palakkad , Coimbatore or the original Udipi or Mangalore – not the type served in Udipi restaurants in Mumbai which are mongrels ! They would also condemn any sambhar that does not taste like their traditional fried-ground coconut , coriander, chilli,onion plus, plus masala concoction !
I mention Palakkad specially because that is where the idli had reached perfection in the form of the famous Ramasseri idli, though nowadays Ramasseri idli has only the appearance. The melting in the mouth and the out of the world taste is just a memory. It is just business and material for TV cookery shows, now. But folks raised in PGT have a higher standard in the matter of idlis than others. My Valiettan used to even surmise that we – the typical Palghatties especially of our family, Kenath – were born out of a giant idli ! The same could be said of our Thekkan friends vis-a vis puttu and kappa or about the Vadakkans and their pathiri…Mention of pathiri does not merely cause a craving in me but also triggers memories of my hostel life at Providence College, Calicut.
Next to food, come clothes and personal appearance.
The attraction of jeans and tops and such western wear for young girls is seen as a threat to Indian culture by the traditional Indian male. Hence sartorial and related fundamentalisms about what women should wear. Many Mallu males, for instance, hate lipstick and what they call ‘ the painted look’, abhor the ‘off- shoulder ’ tops, spaghetti straps & short skirts . Their fantasies are only about long hair, oiled and adorned with jasmine , figures fully draped in sarees or ‘set mundus’, and faces fair, shy and coy ! Among women there are the silk fundamentalists – the Kanjeepuram ,Pochempalli ,Benares, Murshidabad types- and the cotton queens, collectors of handlooms from all over the country . They are quite snooty about their taste and look down upon all other females who don’t share their textile theology.
Among the young I notice a new fire for the olden, golden practices, the aggressive championing of what was just routine in ancient / not so ancient times, like Yoga, Ayurveda , organic farming and so on. Last week a Mumbai-raised youngster gave me a sermon on the allopathic evil and the superiority of our own systems of medicine But he doesn’t seem to have heard of Ashtangahridayam on which the preparation of the kashayam he showed me was based ! Home birthing , I think , is the latest female fundamentalism that is catching on. On Amrita TV , I happened to listen to a young mother waxing evangelical about it. Home birthing was the norm some forty/fifty years ago in India and hospitalization was the exception. But now it is coming back , in a more self conscious and sophisticated garb. Very much like organic farming. There was only natural manure and natural farming in the 40s and even the 50s. Chemical fertilizers and insecticides were seen as saviours by farmers , then. But now they stand exposed as the enemies of the good earth and her children . Hence organic farming. Old wines in new bottles. Going back to nature , to the fundamentals of life. Not a bad trend . The only catch is the new bottles are a bit too expensive.
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Fun-damentalisms - Part I
You may skip the following 3 paragraphs. They are just by the way , sharing with you, some historical funda I gathered recently on the explosive stuff. The rest of it is about the fun versions, like food fundamentalism for instance.
‘Osama was killed by the U.S.’, screamed newspaper headlines on a May morning ( 3rd , to be precise.) Agreed . But the Osama brand of fundamentalism which has now become somewhat synonymous with terrorism is and will be alive and kicking for God knows how long. I cant begin my next sentence with a ‘Believe it or not’. You have no choice but to believe it as it is very much a part of modern American history. Many of us Indians are in the dark about fundamentalism’s American connection, its American origins.
Religious fundamentalism was a late 19th , early 20th century Christian movement in the U.S., a theological battle against the modern scientific explanations of the origin of man as given by Charles Darwin. The term,‘fundamentalism’ was coined by its votaries to describe strict adherence to the Five Fundamentals of the Christian faith ,namely,
1. The Inspiration of the Bible by the Holy spirit and thanks to it the inerrancy of the Scripture. 2. The Virgin Birth of Christ 3. The belief that Christ’s death was the atonement for sin 4. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ & 5. The historical reality of Christ’s miracles.
Along similar lines , there are fundamentals which the very orthodox and right wing radicals of all other religions swear by. Hence, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish , Sikh , even Buddhist fundamentalisms. Embattled forms of spirituality as they are described, they can be both defensive and offensive. The extreme offensiveness has resulted in the formation of terror outfits that have become a nightmare not only for governments but also for you and me .
Far less offensive and much more interesting to reflect upon and categorise are the other orthodoxies which govern our lives. Foremost among them I would place food fundamentalism.. The broad division is into Veggies and Non veggies. The Veggies can be further classified into 3 fundamentalisms- Religion dictated, Caste dictated and Health oriented. The Jains obviously lead the Pack in the religious category. ‘Ahimsa paramo dharma’ is their credo. They wont shed the blood even of a white ant or a mosquito. Extreme herbivores , they avoid onions. No ban on milk though. Eggs are a no- no. Gujju shopkeepers don’t stock eggs. I wonder whether they know that market eggs generally are unfertilized eggs and therefore eating them doesn’t constitute himsa ( violence or killing ) of any prospective life.
Among Hindus , caste generally decides whether flesh , fish and fowl are eatable or not. The South Brahmins, in general, are vegetarian fundamentalists, the no-eggs, no-onion types. Filter coffee is integral to the Tambrahm life style and milk is integral to FC. So they can’t object to milk. But milk is an animal product . Drawing milk is like drawing blood ! This sub-class of veg. fundamentalism is an offshoot of animal rights activism, ahimsa’s close cousin. Long before Maneka Gandhi was born, saw a cow or a goat, Mahatma Gandhi had boycotted cow’s milk. Only extreme illness persuaded him to agree to take goat’s milk.
Obsession with health cuts across religion and caste barriers. Are humans meant by nature to be herbivores or carnivores ? The question has not been convincingly answered either way. But there is the general acceptance of the idea that somehow plant food is lighter , easier on the digestive system etc. So you have vegetarians by choice or by medical compulsion in all castes and communities.
Veg fundamentalists look down upon the Non Veggies , sniff & show disapproval of kitchens , dining rooms , homes, restaurants where non veg items are cooked , served , eaten…Some housing societies in Mumbai do not allow Non –Veg eaters to become members. Non Veg affianadoes use equally vehement retaliatory tactics. But they are mainly confined to words and attitudes. They pour utter scorn on their antagonists. Veggies are just vegetables in their eyes, incapable of human passion, action and high heroics. Just breathing corpses in other words ! Thus the bloodless war goes on between the carnivores and omnivores on the one side and the herbivores on the other.
-------------------------
‘Osama was killed by the U.S.’, screamed newspaper headlines on a May morning ( 3rd , to be precise.) Agreed . But the Osama brand of fundamentalism which has now become somewhat synonymous with terrorism is and will be alive and kicking for God knows how long. I cant begin my next sentence with a ‘Believe it or not’. You have no choice but to believe it as it is very much a part of modern American history. Many of us Indians are in the dark about fundamentalism’s American connection, its American origins.
Religious fundamentalism was a late 19th , early 20th century Christian movement in the U.S., a theological battle against the modern scientific explanations of the origin of man as given by Charles Darwin. The term,‘fundamentalism’ was coined by its votaries to describe strict adherence to the Five Fundamentals of the Christian faith ,namely,
1. The Inspiration of the Bible by the Holy spirit and thanks to it the inerrancy of the Scripture. 2. The Virgin Birth of Christ 3. The belief that Christ’s death was the atonement for sin 4. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ & 5. The historical reality of Christ’s miracles.
Along similar lines , there are fundamentals which the very orthodox and right wing radicals of all other religions swear by. Hence, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish , Sikh , even Buddhist fundamentalisms. Embattled forms of spirituality as they are described, they can be both defensive and offensive. The extreme offensiveness has resulted in the formation of terror outfits that have become a nightmare not only for governments but also for you and me .
Far less offensive and much more interesting to reflect upon and categorise are the other orthodoxies which govern our lives. Foremost among them I would place food fundamentalism.. The broad division is into Veggies and Non veggies. The Veggies can be further classified into 3 fundamentalisms- Religion dictated, Caste dictated and Health oriented. The Jains obviously lead the Pack in the religious category. ‘Ahimsa paramo dharma’ is their credo. They wont shed the blood even of a white ant or a mosquito. Extreme herbivores , they avoid onions. No ban on milk though. Eggs are a no- no. Gujju shopkeepers don’t stock eggs. I wonder whether they know that market eggs generally are unfertilized eggs and therefore eating them doesn’t constitute himsa ( violence or killing ) of any prospective life.
Among Hindus , caste generally decides whether flesh , fish and fowl are eatable or not. The South Brahmins, in general, are vegetarian fundamentalists, the no-eggs, no-onion types. Filter coffee is integral to the Tambrahm life style and milk is integral to FC. So they can’t object to milk. But milk is an animal product . Drawing milk is like drawing blood ! This sub-class of veg. fundamentalism is an offshoot of animal rights activism, ahimsa’s close cousin. Long before Maneka Gandhi was born, saw a cow or a goat, Mahatma Gandhi had boycotted cow’s milk. Only extreme illness persuaded him to agree to take goat’s milk.
Obsession with health cuts across religion and caste barriers. Are humans meant by nature to be herbivores or carnivores ? The question has not been convincingly answered either way. But there is the general acceptance of the idea that somehow plant food is lighter , easier on the digestive system etc. So you have vegetarians by choice or by medical compulsion in all castes and communities.
Veg fundamentalists look down upon the Non Veggies , sniff & show disapproval of kitchens , dining rooms , homes, restaurants where non veg items are cooked , served , eaten…Some housing societies in Mumbai do not allow Non –Veg eaters to become members. Non Veg affianadoes use equally vehement retaliatory tactics. But they are mainly confined to words and attitudes. They pour utter scorn on their antagonists. Veggies are just vegetables in their eyes, incapable of human passion, action and high heroics. Just breathing corpses in other words ! Thus the bloodless war goes on between the carnivores and omnivores on the one side and the herbivores on the other.
-------------------------
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Imperial PowerSoft
I missed the actual ceremony but I did watch a lot of the scenes before and after , like many of my fellow countrymen and women. I also read the report that more Indians watched the Kate -Will wedding on TV than the Brits. Which is understandable . There just are more English knowing Indians than there are Brits. There just are more TV viewing Indians than English folk. All because there just are more Indian men , women & children on the planet than English men, women & children.
We easily outnumber them and, despite the Independence struggle and the Independence, we are still overwhelmingly in love with them, their Queen, their Prince of Wales, their People’s Princess and her sons who are like our princes . We follow anyone they date, marry or not marry. Given a choice , we would all want to be them, the British i.e. In the second decade of the 21st century with so many Indians living out there in London, Oxford and various other parts of Britain the two centuries old secret fantasy of Indians has become a reality .
The answer to why Indians , all post-colonials for that matter, are so enamoured of everything British lies in the one expression which is now made so much of by thinkers and speakers on international relations, namely ‘Soft Power’. Long before Harvard Professor, Joseph .S. Nye coined it and developed the concept in 1990 , the British rulers had perfected the art of using soft power ‘to attract and co-opt’, as Nye puts it, the subject nations to want what they (the British ) wanted.
The introduction of English education in India and making English the official language of the country were master strokes in the power play of the soft variety. Beginning with the nursery rhymes which elite Indian parents took pains to teach their children, English poetry and literature worked as weapons of mass conversion of the Indian psyche to an English way of thinking , feeling and imagining. British history from its very origins and the English language from its origins in the the Anglo Saxon times were part of the syllabus for students majoring in English literature. I know it from the inside as I had gone through it all. And I must add I have benefited by it, both materially and psychologically.
Various other British systems and practices, manners, cuisine, cricket et al which can be put into the soft power basket made their way into the subcontinent’s physical as well as mental space. More than one hundred years of such infusion could not be shaken off at midnight , August 1947. We continue/d to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations . The British Council ensures the maintenance of the influence, though the libraries, alas, are in the withdrawal mode right now.
We have out-Britished the British in our passion and flair for cricket. We write more innovative fiction in English than the English novelists and beat them at the prize winning game . In parliamentary democracy, strangely, reverse osmosis seems to be taking place. Reports suggest their MPs and Ministers out there are as as bad as ours in the matter of spending and thieving public funds.
But they have the monarchy still, far removed from muck of this kind. The Queen , personally , is above board, despite her siblings and progeny turning Buckingham Palace into F.....gham palace. I suggest that the Commonwealth of Nations honour her with a medal for standing the Duke Of Edinburgh, his foot ever in his mouth, for 63 long years. That is Right Royal Endurance . We, Indians salute that regardless of any power, hard or soft !
We easily outnumber them and, despite the Independence struggle and the Independence, we are still overwhelmingly in love with them, their Queen, their Prince of Wales, their People’s Princess and her sons who are like our princes . We follow anyone they date, marry or not marry. Given a choice , we would all want to be them, the British i.e. In the second decade of the 21st century with so many Indians living out there in London, Oxford and various other parts of Britain the two centuries old secret fantasy of Indians has become a reality .
The answer to why Indians , all post-colonials for that matter, are so enamoured of everything British lies in the one expression which is now made so much of by thinkers and speakers on international relations, namely ‘Soft Power’. Long before Harvard Professor, Joseph .S. Nye coined it and developed the concept in 1990 , the British rulers had perfected the art of using soft power ‘to attract and co-opt’, as Nye puts it, the subject nations to want what they (the British ) wanted.
The introduction of English education in India and making English the official language of the country were master strokes in the power play of the soft variety. Beginning with the nursery rhymes which elite Indian parents took pains to teach their children, English poetry and literature worked as weapons of mass conversion of the Indian psyche to an English way of thinking , feeling and imagining. British history from its very origins and the English language from its origins in the the Anglo Saxon times were part of the syllabus for students majoring in English literature. I know it from the inside as I had gone through it all. And I must add I have benefited by it, both materially and psychologically.
Various other British systems and practices, manners, cuisine, cricket et al which can be put into the soft power basket made their way into the subcontinent’s physical as well as mental space. More than one hundred years of such infusion could not be shaken off at midnight , August 1947. We continue/d to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations . The British Council ensures the maintenance of the influence, though the libraries, alas, are in the withdrawal mode right now.
We have out-Britished the British in our passion and flair for cricket. We write more innovative fiction in English than the English novelists and beat them at the prize winning game . In parliamentary democracy, strangely, reverse osmosis seems to be taking place. Reports suggest their MPs and Ministers out there are as as bad as ours in the matter of spending and thieving public funds.
But they have the monarchy still, far removed from muck of this kind. The Queen , personally , is above board, despite her siblings and progeny turning Buckingham Palace into F.....gham palace. I suggest that the Commonwealth of Nations honour her with a medal for standing the Duke Of Edinburgh, his foot ever in his mouth, for 63 long years. That is Right Royal Endurance . We, Indians salute that regardless of any power, hard or soft !
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Help thou, Mine Unbelief !
‘Heaven lies about us in our infancy’, said Wordsworth. One sort of heaven is when you are able to have complete trust in someone/ something.. The infant trusts its mother blindly , unquestioningly , fully. The same trust it is able to transfer to the concept of God for a few more years. Lucky and blessed are those who can retain this blissful, childlike state throughout their lives. Well, I don’t think I am one of them. I have been oscillating between belief and unbelief all my adult life. I do need belief to carry on with life even on a day to day level. I do pray , beg for this and that. My petitionary prayers spring not out of a love of God but out of a love of myself. And when my prayers are answered I thank the Lord like anyone else does .
But faith of the kind that moved the millions who wept at the passing away of Sathya Sai Baba is alien to me. I have seen Baba once . I forget the exact year. It was a balcony appearance in the palace near Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad. I wasn’t too moved, to be honest . I didn’t know much about him , then. Baba was young , in his forties , may be. And I was a lot younger, an adolescent very much under the influence of rationalistic writings like those of Bertrand Russell. In those days of utter ignorance and vainglory, I enjoyed sporting an atheistic/ skeptical façade.
Do I know better now ? Not too sure . But certainly , I have stopped being cynical and dismissive about the spiritually evolved souls like Baba. Magicians assert that the miracles that Sai Baba performed can be replicated by them. They could be right, too. Quite likely , the residual rationalist in me whispers , that he was an adept illusionist , who could , reportedly, produce gold chains and vibhuti from the air. But Puttaparthi is no illusion and no magician can replicate that miracle. That ultra modern township which he crafted out of a humble village in the back of beyond is the monument to the Satya or the Truth of Satya Sai Baba.
In fact, all the institutions and projects that have been functioning under his inspiration bear witness to that Satya. The Dharmakshetra in Mumbai is one such centre . Baba’s devotees conduct various programmes for students there. I was privileged to accompany a few of my students to this centre , along with my colleague , Prof. Rajasree who is a Sai Bhakta. The experience was memorable on two counts. One was, of course , the spiritual high that was ensured by the music and the talk. The other was the taste of the food - breakfast & lunch- all home cooked and brought to the venue by the women devotees. I mention this in all solemnity.
To the hungry, God comes in the form of food. It was a cardinal rule with Baba, explained my friend, that his disciples should see to it that all those who come to his programmes anywhere should return with their stomachs’ need met satisfactorily. The way to the heart is through the stomach ! The practical saints know this. Satya Sai Baba was a practical saint who empathized with the hunger and thirst of ordinary mortals. After tasting that manna at Dharmakshetra , I must have become half a devotee. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.
Total devotion which would mean total surrender , as I had confessed at the outset , is, alas, beyond me. It is one of the beautiful ironies of the religious life that total surrender to God or the god-like Guru is liberation. The liberation from doubts that Arjuna attained in Kurukshetra when he witnessed the Cosmic Form , the Viswa roopa , of Krishna. The liberation that St. Thomas , the Doubting Thomas , experienced when he could see and touch Jesus after the Resurrection couldn’t have been different. I am still waiting for that ‘ Lord, my God!’moment.
Published in the City Journal ( title changed to the somewhat tame Make Me Believe ) on 4th May ,2011.
But faith of the kind that moved the millions who wept at the passing away of Sathya Sai Baba is alien to me. I have seen Baba once . I forget the exact year. It was a balcony appearance in the palace near Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad. I wasn’t too moved, to be honest . I didn’t know much about him , then. Baba was young , in his forties , may be. And I was a lot younger, an adolescent very much under the influence of rationalistic writings like those of Bertrand Russell. In those days of utter ignorance and vainglory, I enjoyed sporting an atheistic/ skeptical façade.
Do I know better now ? Not too sure . But certainly , I have stopped being cynical and dismissive about the spiritually evolved souls like Baba. Magicians assert that the miracles that Sai Baba performed can be replicated by them. They could be right, too. Quite likely , the residual rationalist in me whispers , that he was an adept illusionist , who could , reportedly, produce gold chains and vibhuti from the air. But Puttaparthi is no illusion and no magician can replicate that miracle. That ultra modern township which he crafted out of a humble village in the back of beyond is the monument to the Satya or the Truth of Satya Sai Baba.
In fact, all the institutions and projects that have been functioning under his inspiration bear witness to that Satya. The Dharmakshetra in Mumbai is one such centre . Baba’s devotees conduct various programmes for students there. I was privileged to accompany a few of my students to this centre , along with my colleague , Prof. Rajasree who is a Sai Bhakta. The experience was memorable on two counts. One was, of course , the spiritual high that was ensured by the music and the talk. The other was the taste of the food - breakfast & lunch- all home cooked and brought to the venue by the women devotees. I mention this in all solemnity.
To the hungry, God comes in the form of food. It was a cardinal rule with Baba, explained my friend, that his disciples should see to it that all those who come to his programmes anywhere should return with their stomachs’ need met satisfactorily. The way to the heart is through the stomach ! The practical saints know this. Satya Sai Baba was a practical saint who empathized with the hunger and thirst of ordinary mortals. After tasting that manna at Dharmakshetra , I must have become half a devotee. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.
Total devotion which would mean total surrender , as I had confessed at the outset , is, alas, beyond me. It is one of the beautiful ironies of the religious life that total surrender to God or the god-like Guru is liberation. The liberation from doubts that Arjuna attained in Kurukshetra when he witnessed the Cosmic Form , the Viswa roopa , of Krishna. The liberation that St. Thomas , the Doubting Thomas , experienced when he could see and touch Jesus after the Resurrection couldn’t have been different. I am still waiting for that ‘ Lord, my God!’moment.
Published in the City Journal ( title changed to the somewhat tame Make Me Believe ) on 4th May ,2011.
Friday, April 15, 2011
A Day with O.N.V. Part II - Killer English & D(r)ying Mother Tongues
The Multi- lingual Seminar organized by Maha- Keraleeyam as part of its programme of felicitation of O.N.V. held a mirror upto all the ironies in our lives as Indians. The theme of the seminar was : ‘ Drying Regional Languages And The Challenges Confronting The Indian Cultural Identity.’ Papers were presented by eminent people from five regional language organizations - The Karnataka Sangha , Mumbai , The Marathi Abhyas Kendra , The Bombay Tamil Sangam, The Andhra Mahasabha, Mumbai and Maha Keraleeyam.
In multilingual Mumbai, the papers had to be in the one & only link language, English. An irony that we will be living with for all time to come. All the speakers, except one, bowed to ‘this inevitable compromise’ as O.N.V. himself did in his concluding speech. Only the Tamil Sangam President, Prof. Jayakanteepan read his paper in Tamil. Arumaiyana Tamil for those who could follow it. But worse than Greek & Latin to the rest ! President of the Andhra Mahasabha , A. Mallikarjun Reddy,on the other hand , showed that a solution is possible if Indians have the will, by speaking in all 5 languages plus English.
English has always been with us ever since the famous Macaulay’s Minutes. But despite the dominance of English in the 19 and early 20 th centuries English language & literature actually nourished writing in regional languages. This was a point made by the Malayalam poet and spokesperson Sri. K.S .Menon . O.N.V. himself amplified it.
The IT revolution and globalization have changed the equations drastically. English language has become, as Prof.Deepak Pawar,of the Marathi Abhyas
Kendra put it , the default tool of cultural globalization. Besides being the vehicle of the culture of a people, language has an economic and political aspect. Now these aspects alone seem to matter for the aam janta and the sarkar. Both Prof. Pawar & Dr. Prakash Parab of MAK stressed the need to offer economic incentives to people, Marathi-speaking or not, who take the trouble to learn Marathi. Mr. Rammohan Khanapurkar spoke of technological solutions which can make the IT revolution more inclusive. He blamed the State Govt. for not aggrsseively implementing Unicode which is the standard encoding for Indian Languages Computing. Dr. Gurunath D. Joshi , President of the Karnataka Sangha, Mumbai also opined that the Karnataka govt. should persuade the soft ware companies to develop all the technical infrastructure.
Next to English, Hindi is seen as another carnivore in the Indian language jungle. Bollywood has made Hindi so delectable. And the various Central Govt. iniatives in popularizing it have really worked well. Thus a big area of our mindspace or tongue space is cornered by either or both these languages in the metros and even the interiors.
How does O.N.V. view the language/ culture scene ? He expressed deep respect and gratitude to the English language which had thrown open the windows to the intellectual ideological treasure houses of the West, including Marxism. Quoting Arnold Toynbee, he said the most effective weapon that the British wielded was an unseen weapon . It was the English language. But the subdued people acquired that missile and used it against the Empire. The poet’s advice was to treat English as an honoured guest. Entertain it as you would a guest, in the drawing room and dining room. But don’t take it to the bedroom !
The fears of the death of our languages and the emergence of a boring , uniform culture are not unjustified. But I find certain counter forces emerging which can see to the flourishing of local cultures and languages. These Samajams, Sangams and Kendras are themselves a hopeful sign. I
spoke about the oral tradition through which I acquired the beautiful poetic fragments of my mother tongue as well as of Sanskrit. Oral tradition of the tech kind is being established by the cassette industry now. One of the three youngsters who recited O.N.V.’s poems had learned ‘ Amma Vilikkunnu’ from the cassette.
The regional channels with their music reality shows and poetry recitation contests are attracting the youth towards their linguistic traditions. The cinema is another force which can keep the linguistic communities connected. Some parents are , with a will, passing on their love of the mother tongue to the children. Ancient rites and rituals like the ‘ Athirathram ’ in Panjal, the popularity of Poorams , Vedies , Melas and the fesivals seem to promise the survival of some cultural diversity .
Published in City Journal on Monday 11th April, 2011
In multilingual Mumbai, the papers had to be in the one & only link language, English. An irony that we will be living with for all time to come. All the speakers, except one, bowed to ‘this inevitable compromise’ as O.N.V. himself did in his concluding speech. Only the Tamil Sangam President, Prof. Jayakanteepan read his paper in Tamil. Arumaiyana Tamil for those who could follow it. But worse than Greek & Latin to the rest ! President of the Andhra Mahasabha , A. Mallikarjun Reddy,on the other hand , showed that a solution is possible if Indians have the will, by speaking in all 5 languages plus English.
English has always been with us ever since the famous Macaulay’s Minutes. But despite the dominance of English in the 19 and early 20 th centuries English language & literature actually nourished writing in regional languages. This was a point made by the Malayalam poet and spokesperson Sri. K.S .Menon . O.N.V. himself amplified it.
The IT revolution and globalization have changed the equations drastically. English language has become, as Prof.Deepak Pawar,of the Marathi Abhyas
Kendra put it , the default tool of cultural globalization. Besides being the vehicle of the culture of a people, language has an economic and political aspect. Now these aspects alone seem to matter for the aam janta and the sarkar. Both Prof. Pawar & Dr. Prakash Parab of MAK stressed the need to offer economic incentives to people, Marathi-speaking or not, who take the trouble to learn Marathi. Mr. Rammohan Khanapurkar spoke of technological solutions which can make the IT revolution more inclusive. He blamed the State Govt. for not aggrsseively implementing Unicode which is the standard encoding for Indian Languages Computing. Dr. Gurunath D. Joshi , President of the Karnataka Sangha, Mumbai also opined that the Karnataka govt. should persuade the soft ware companies to develop all the technical infrastructure.
Next to English, Hindi is seen as another carnivore in the Indian language jungle. Bollywood has made Hindi so delectable. And the various Central Govt. iniatives in popularizing it have really worked well. Thus a big area of our mindspace or tongue space is cornered by either or both these languages in the metros and even the interiors.
How does O.N.V. view the language/ culture scene ? He expressed deep respect and gratitude to the English language which had thrown open the windows to the intellectual ideological treasure houses of the West, including Marxism. Quoting Arnold Toynbee, he said the most effective weapon that the British wielded was an unseen weapon . It was the English language. But the subdued people acquired that missile and used it against the Empire. The poet’s advice was to treat English as an honoured guest. Entertain it as you would a guest, in the drawing room and dining room. But don’t take it to the bedroom !
The fears of the death of our languages and the emergence of a boring , uniform culture are not unjustified. But I find certain counter forces emerging which can see to the flourishing of local cultures and languages. These Samajams, Sangams and Kendras are themselves a hopeful sign. I
spoke about the oral tradition through which I acquired the beautiful poetic fragments of my mother tongue as well as of Sanskrit. Oral tradition of the tech kind is being established by the cassette industry now. One of the three youngsters who recited O.N.V.’s poems had learned ‘ Amma Vilikkunnu’ from the cassette.
The regional channels with their music reality shows and poetry recitation contests are attracting the youth towards their linguistic traditions. The cinema is another force which can keep the linguistic communities connected. Some parents are , with a will, passing on their love of the mother tongue to the children. Ancient rites and rituals like the ‘ Athirathram ’ in Panjal, the popularity of Poorams , Vedies , Melas and the fesivals seem to promise the survival of some cultural diversity .
Published in City Journal on Monday 11th April, 2011
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