Literature

20.2.1976

Study of literature gives a balance of mind and maturity of thought. It helps in treating life in a better perspective. Life is trash without values. A firm belief in values is possible only through association with great minds, either directly or indirectly i.e. through literature.

20/9/18

I re-read an abridged version of A Mill on the Floss’ (a moving novel that I studied as non-detailed text). I came upon ‘.. the water sparkled like diamond.”

That revived Madurai memory. As I used to ride on the scooter to office from Thirunagar, the lake on the left with Tirpparankundram on the right will have water that had a silvery sheen and that used to fascinate me. It never occurred to me that it shone like diamond. That is the difference between a poetic mind and a prosaic one. What a pleasure to read classics and what a treasure of classics we have!

17/5/17

Charles Dickens tells a grim story of David Copperfield’s boyhood. I am not able to get past that harrowing experience of David in the hands of his step-father, named Murdstone by Dickens in a characteristic way. The story has an interesting and pleasant later part. David comes upon good fortune by writing and has a sweet life, but the cruelty he faced early fills the mind with sorrow. There is no amends for the lost boyhood. It is a story and need not affect me as it has. Just as David’s mother was pliant and submitted to the machinations of Murdstone, I let my mind be affected by the story. That is the state of malleable minds.

Sep 2016

Similes of Kalidasa

(उपमा कालिदासस्य)

Kalidasa is perhaps the greatest poet and dramatist in Samskrtam. His poetry is like the free flow of a tranquil river, deep beneath a still-looking surface, flowing at a steady speed. While his mastery was in diction, imagery, figures of speech and every aspect of poetry, he is singled out for his similes that are splendid.

The scene is wedding of Rama and Sita. Dasaratha lands in Mithila with his entourage. Mithila is stressed to the limit to support a large contingent, but she was pleased to be host. It was like a lady in conjugal embrace of her lover, says the poet - श्त्रीव कान्तपरिभोगमायतं. Literature of ancient India was explicit. There was no prudishness. The simile is taken from the context of wedding and it is easy to see the parallel and appreciate how hospitable Mithila was. 

It is the opening stanza of Kumarasambhavam. As a prelude to the birth of Kumara (Karthikeya), Kalidasa wants to describe the love and marriage of Parvathi and Siva. He begins majestically setting in vivid detail the grandeur of Himalayas. What can be the Himalayas be compared to? It is non-pareil. Even though the other mountain ranges might not have been known at that time, it is for fact that Himalayas has been unique for its range, height and variety. It is so huge. The next huge thing that came to his mind was the earth. If someone were to measure the earth what measuring rod can he use? Himalayas. It suggests at once the order of the hugeness of Himalayas and the fact that we must have a proper measuring scale. For example, we use light year for galactic distances. Says Kalidasa:

स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः

That is a deft stroke of poetic imagination.

वागर्थाविव सम्पृक्तौ वागर्थप्रतिपत्तये जगतः पितरौ वन्दे पार्वतीपरमेश्वरौ

Kalidasa takes up narrating the lineage of Raghu (Raghuvamsa). He invokes the grace of Siva for the effort to fructify.

Siva is आशुतोषि – easily pleased. But, there is a greater reason. Let Kalidasa say it.

“I bow to Parvathi and Parameswara, who are fused into one another as word and meaning, for getting meaningful words.”

The ingenuity of thinking of the inseparability of word and meaning for the divine union of the primordial couple is amazing. Apart from its appositeness, the linkage to his purpose on hand is a stroke of genius. No doubt, Kalidasa is a master in diction.

It is to be noted that a word is a word only if it has meaning, otherwise it is gibberish (may monkeys not get angry) just as a sentence is not one just by syntax, but only when it has a clear meaning.

I hope I have complied with the rules!

Kalidasa is not easily pleased with the clichéd upamanas. For example, poets used to compare the thigh of a lady to a tusk of an elephant because of the way it tapers or the stalk of a banana plant because of its silken touch. But, these examples do not meet with the exacting criteria of Kalidasa. How can you think of the tusk, which is so rough, to the thigh of Parvathi? Out of the question. Banana stalk? That is equally naïve. How extremely chill it is! Neither is a suitable simile and they rule themselves out. This sets the standard for simile. Better not to think of a simile if an apt one is not available. Read it in the words of the poet:

नागेन्द्रहस्तास्त्वचि कर्कशत्वा-

  देकान्तशैत्यात्कदलीविशेषाः I

लब्ध्वापि लोके परिणाहि रूपं

  जातास्तदूर्वोरुपमानबाह्याः II

January 13, 2015

Sankara's poetry

Sankara’s poetic excellence

In a sloka on Siva, Sankara says:

पशुं वेत्सि चेन्मां त्वमेवाधिरूदः 

कलङ्कीति वा मूर्ध्नि धत्से त्वमेव I           

द्विजिह्वः पुनस्सोsपि ते कण्ठभूषा 

त्वदङ्गीकृताः शर्वः सर्वेsपि धन्याः II

Sankara addresses Siva for his grace. The question is whether he deserves it. Sankara reminds Siva of others whom he has graced and how he is on par with each of them, by pun on words. Sankara says, “If you think me a beast (pasu), it (nandi, which is pasu) is your vehicle. If you consider me one with blemishes (kalanki), you wear moon (a name for moon is kalanki, since moon has the dark patch, kalanka) on your head. If you consider me a liar (dvijihva - two-tongued),  it (serpent is called dvijihva because of split tongue) is your neck ornament. Thus, anyone graced by you is lucky. Grace me also.”

Dvijihva reminds me of what Rama says about himself when he is advised to repudiate his father and claim the crown, ‘न रामो द्वि भाषते’. Talking twice (dvi) means to go back on what one has said. But, dvibhashi is a translator. Its derivation comes from knowledge of two bhashas.

August 16, 2014

25.10.2001

“To Sir With Love” (TSWL)  

I can’t read a few pages without a rush of thoughts interrupting rudely. My mind takes so many by-lanes at the same time, a mental possibility that can never translate to physical parallels. Even as I try to meditate calming the mind, turbulence takes over and prevails.
When I was posted to London, that was in 1987, I met my batchmate in Hyderabad and surveyed with him what to expect there since as a trainee officer he served there. He talked spiritedly of the places and characters you come across in English novels coming alive before you for real. It meant little to me, not having read much. I never pictured in my mind those places and characters. They were not real to me at all.
When I was in London, I did not bother to come to terms with its reality and vitality, its history and traditions, discipline and culture, theatre, countryside and so on.
While reading TSWL, I felt sad about what I missed not of London, but of life at large.
You can’t live your life off the dead pages of a book or anything worthwhile only by reading. Life can be understood only by living, by being active. We do not understand our part in the world by not participating in it. A book can only serve to trigger and kindle a zest to live, it can never replace life, just as a map cannot substitute for the place it stands for.

26.10.2001

A good book. What a difference between ‘exist’ and ‘live’! produced more poise than reading Ramayana.

Kurunthokai 38:

கான மஞ்ஞை அறை ஈன் முட்டை

வெயில் ஆடு முசுவின் குருளை உருட்டும்

குன்ற நாடன் கேண்மை என்றும்

நன்றுமன் வாழி தோழி! உண்கண்

நீரொடு ஓராங்குத் தணப்ப,

உள்ளாது ஆற்றல் வல்லுவோர்க்கே.

He comes from the hill where a baby monkey plays in the sun, rolling an egg laid by a wild peacock on a rock.

Loving him is good, my friend, for any woman, eyes welling with tears, who can stand it and not think too much when he goes away.

David Shulman in his book ‘Tamil’ gives interesting explanatory notes.

“Often the young man goes off in search of wealth and knowledge, leaving his beloved behind. Separation, pirivu, is associated with the landscape of the desert, palai.

‘Loving’ here is ‘kenmai’, which suggests ‘closeness, intimacy, friendship relatedness,’ glossed by the commentators as ‘natpu’ (loving friendship).

The assertion of goodness (nanru) comes just in the middle. .. The lover’s departure, (tanappa), ends the penultimate, always slightly shorter line; not thinking, ullathu, begins the final line, a position of great emphasis in most Tamil poems. The full force of irony hits us here, before she ends the verse by spelling out the bittersweet suffering. So we have the image taken from the natural world, followed by the affirmation of goodness, in turn followed by a sharp but understated subversion of this same affirmation. She is alone, and she can’t handle it.

In a way, the true punch of tis poem comes from the opening ‘inset’ – the baby monkey rolling the peacock’s egg. Such inset .. is explained by ‘ullurai uvamam’, (a comparison that inhabits the inside).  ‘Ullurai uvamam’ operates alongside a complementary category known as ‘iraicchi’ (suggestion). The image cited by the speaker enacts a piece of her or his inner world of feeling, akam (in-ness). .. We have a resonance, or a reflection, or a projection, or a subtle yet highly evocative correspondence between the inner domain and something that apparently exists in an outer domain, puram (out-ness).

U.V.Swaminatha Iyer: ‘The peacock should take care and guard its egg, but instead it leaves it alone on the rock; not only that, the baby monkey plays with it, rolling it around. Just like that, the male lover, by leaving his beloved, who deserves to be delighted by their togetherness, causes her grief. What is more, she becomes subject to the further grief of hearing the villagers gossiping about them, with the result that she is made an object of ridicule. That is the suggestion.’

One can see how dense the poem is with thought and feeling. The intensity of expression is in direct proportion to the economy of expression. Such poems were meant to be sung, no recited. .. There are interesting and complex relations between the metrical units and the verbal-semantic ones. .. Musicality as such is one of the defining features of the life force (uyir), or of the self, of a Tamil person.”

India

Indian Unity

In the 2014 annual Thuglak mela, Cho says, ‘There are 3 factors which hold India together: Hinduism or spirituality, Constitution and Congress.’ That is interesting.

It is normal for a Hindu who has tried to understand its roots, to pride on Hinduism, which is following one’s aptitude in his chosen field at his pace in a way and by the means he can afford, in advancement of spirituality.

Cho was a lawyer by profession to start with and his choosing constitution as a unifying factor falls in place. Surely, our constitution is an outstanding product of excellent minds led by Dr. B R Ambedkar. Its basic structure has been preserved for 65 years even after many amendments.

For anyone of his generation, Congress was an organisation that fostered the idea of India against a foreign aggressor and occupied a special place in their hearts.

Cho may not be far wrong, but the three pillars are shaky now, esp. the last one and we need new ones. Modi promises to rebuild BJP to fill the breach caused by the fall of Congress, and his parivar must let him reset the raison d’etre of BJP in national interests. It will be nice if Congress can revive as a democratic party letting grass roots level organization to germinate and grow throwing up leaders, but it remains a pipedream as of now.  

Hindus must rediscover tolerance and appreciation of alternatives and let Hinduism flourish on its intrinsic and native merits rather than on reactionary emulation of proselytizing faiths.

May sense and peace prevail!

January 6, 2017 ·

Ills of India

To become a great nation, the people have to work hard and be disciplined. It is doubtful whether that is a trait of our national ethos. It is not just the govt. that is responsible for what we are. It may seem to exonerate the rotten governments that ruled India, but after independence those that ruled us rose from our midst.

1. We place no value on time. This seems to be a continuation of the village habit where time was aplenty and clocks were rare. I have seen villagers say, ‘Go. I will follow,’ but will hardly follow. It has become a strange symbol of rank to appear late for an appointment. There is not even a murmur of apology when one turns up late. There was a meeting for which a CGM turned up late. He was mentioning in the lobby that he slept off, but if asked he would say that there was traffic jam. He thought that it was fun.

2. Civic sense is absent abysmally. The employees that are well paid throw litter happily on the road. If there can be a national activity spitting will be miles ahead as a qualifier. We have one pink city, but many red cities. A very senior person spat in a flower vase abroad while on a visit. In a PSB in Kolkata, they kept god’s pictures in staircase space to restrain people from spitting.

3. We are proud that we do not use thank you, etc. It is considered by many to be an empty formality.

4. 'Me first' is almost universal. I have seen that in London, in a train if a seat fell vacant, no one tries to grab it. In driving, if the headlight is switched on, it means the other driver has right of way as against our custom of implying, 'you better wait'.

5. Balance of advantage precedes compliance with law. If there is a fine and if nine out of ten times I can violate with impunity, that is balance of advantage. Inconvenience of compliance is avoided. Rules are not meant to be taken seriously. A friend narrated an incident when a family called a cab in London and there was a toddler too many. They pleaded with the driver to take them as one was after all a toddler. The driver told them, ‘Sir, here we make rules to follow.’ A borrower with an irregular account told me that unlike others, I took the circulars seriously. Strangely, in the bank, head office liked tact in branch staff. Various staff circulars were meant not to be followed. The one who followed lacked tact. Head office set a good example for this.

6. Concern for others, the sine qua non of civilization, is a stranger to us. I realized how it manifests abroad. If a person is going ahead and has to pass through a door, when some one follows he holds the door open and the custom is well oiled. I need not say what we do. When sometimes I tried it, I found that the next man would happily pass as I was holding the door. He would not have the courtesy to do it to the next man.

7. Doing well what we do is not in our make-up. We talk of German machining and so on. I wonder what our core competence is. The policy of ‘no replacement’ explains the quality of our products.

8. The widespread corruption starting from buying votes is a bane and shows no sign of abating. The huge public support for the movement against it looked like a good augury, but has been manipulated for capturing power. No one is bothered about it. Corruption continues to dictate whether something will be done.

9. The growth of cities like Bengaluru with absolutely no construction norm being followed points to a disaster.

10. The political system has no credible leader with all round appeal. We are a disparate group of various regional interests and emotional appeal.

11. The system of freebies and loan waivers is well entrenched. Everyone wants everything from the govt. while wanting to cheat the govt. on its income. Even a well off man would cry for duty relief and get it because he is an icon.

12. The reservation system makes mockery of merit and it will not go away in the foreseeable future.

13. The judicial system is tedious and vexatious and the judgements become infructuous when delivered.

I have perhaps made it formidable and have not bothered to mention the strong points. But, the point is that while we would make progress, there is no ground for optimism that we will become in the next decade a nation like say our far eastern neighbours.

Indian ethos

The road to a great nation is founded on truth, quest for knowledge and unremitting application. Do we see that?

I have written before on the list of flaws:

1.         Corruption. It is touted, was it Dr. Radhakrishnan who said it first, that Hinduism is a way of life. Maybe thanks to post-independence culture, that has lost its sheen. But, it is a fact of life that corruption is a way of life. Some would say that there is no difference. Corruption is indigenous, we can proudly say. We do not owe it to the Moghuls or the British.

2.         Scant regard to law. The great facilitator for this is the first, you can bribe your way and flout the law. There is also this idea that one is powerful to the extent one can flout the law.

3.         India is a spiritual nation, Vivekananda said and even convinced the world. But, we have slowly changed it. We are after money and material things in a big way. I am not asking for a reversal, but the way we are materialist, we have no locus standi to call the west materialist. For a small gain, we will pledge our soul.

4.         We do not care for our surroundings and fellowmen. That is a striking difference between the west, Japan, even Malaysia, and us. We do not care for manners. Touching the feet of elders is not the touchstone of manners.

Bharathi Baskar (a debater and orator) described in her characteristic style a common occurrence. A man was waiting for a bus at peak hour and begged those already hanging out for just enough space to put a foot and hold a hand. He used his skill to gain foothold for both feet and within a few stops nudged his way in and also managed to get a window seat. When the bus was about to stop at the next stop he shouted to the conductor, ‘Why don’t you give double whistle and carry on? Where is space?’

This is a bit of an exaggeration, but a basic trait that manifests variously. We do not realise that our well-being is associated with that of our fellowmen.

5.         We do not care for time and timeliness. Blaming it on the traffic is a cheap pretext everyone uses. That is a cruel joke on the others who go and wait after having waded through the same traffic.

In India, status symbols are:

Not wishing back;

Turning up late;

Breaking the queue, law, etc.

Letting juniors pick up the bills.

6.         It is understandable that the fields of entertainment and sports are main lines for some, but it is crazy that a large section of society pay more attention to them to the detriment of their own avocation.

7. Putting the blame on others for our failure. In school, when a student fails, the blame is cast on the teacher who had some grudge on the student. Or, it is fate, some bad deed of past birth, in this one we are saints.

8. Deep-rooted caste system for which the cause is identified as Brahmins (a miserable minority and effectively excluded from government mostly) persecuting whom is the solution. Fighting elections on caste equations and reservations based on caste are never the cause for its perpetuation.

9. Recommendation culture. We seek recommendation (I claim no virtue) for anything from jumping a queue or getting a train reservation. When I was on an interview panel many candidates brought some recommendation. I remarked to a colleague, ‘Not getting recommendation in any form will be a disqualification.’ Even in sports and awards, it is at times based on some equations and recommendations.

10. Merit-based system not seriously in place. Where it is (IITs and IIMs mostly) we see good results.

No government wants to even talk of this canker at the root. All are busy just trimming the twigs. Until we get down to basics and make way for an orderly society that depends on good work and belief in discipline, we are a long way off from becoming a great nation. 

July 05, 2015

Glory of Ancient India

I have been receiving mails about the glory of ancient India. But, that glory belongs to ancient India, not to modern India. We have to WORK for the glory of modern India.

The glory of the ancient India was built on the reality of the world as perceived at that time. The glory of present India has to be built on the reality as perceived today. That glory will have to reflect today’s world which is more connected than it was in ancient time. It cannot be a revival of the conditions of ancient India, an impossibility.

India’s influence on modern science

Preposterous claims are made about modern scientists having been guided by Indian thoughts for their discoveries. None of the modern scientists of the west owe anything to ancient India for the discoveries in the last five hundred years or so. Even the contributions by Indian scientists have been built on the lead given by the west. Some scientists, it is true, found solace in Vedanta as it accords, better than the western world view, with QM findings which are mathematical and defy understanding in classical terms. But, they were not inspired or guided by Vedanta. There is nothing in Vedas or Vedanta that could lead one to the precise discoveries of QM or modern science. India was ahead in science more than a thousand years ago and then for whatever reason it took a back seat.

Those who spread such extravagant claims undermine whatever is good in our legacy. We have a big job of building a strong and united India which must be based on current realities.