myth and the reality

Posted on 8/10/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The space shuttle "Discovery" managed to get home without a scratch. I watched the touchdown on TV and was struck by several aspects in its journey that find constant parallels in religious literature, myths and

folk tales.

   Just consider the reentry. The ship has to pass a test of fire before being allowed in. Fire is held to be sacred and having a purifying effect in many religions. This could also be because the discovery of the uses of fire was quite a revelation to the people who till then had been eating raw food and most of the time shivering during the cold nights. The majesty of the flames leaping forth and banishing darkness and cold must have appeared divine in nature and fire gained the status of a god.

   Thus, tempered by fire, she made a grand entry and announced her arrival with a double sonic boom. During the landing approach, the spaceship looked as light as a feather but according to NASA, the aerodynamics are that of a flying brick. Such instances make for modern day fables. Anyway, Commander Eileen Collins and her crew really did a great job.

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   Isn´t it wonderful that all of us, no matter in which part of the world, are able to see all these events as they unfold.

   Will soon post more on myth and reality, especially how in these modern times, people keep inventing new characters and situations, away from the ordinary.

fading magic of harry potter

Posted on 8/6/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince seems to be lacking in spontanitey and purpose. While the first three volumes were really good, even for adult readers, this one somehow is not exactly for the very young children nor for the old. Problem seems to be that it has just been written for the market. There is no hovering sense of menace like in the earlier books. May be it is because Harry is under no direct threat here and there is no confrontation with Voldemort. Also, the murder of  one of the important characters (the entire world knows who gets bumped off by now, but still one must maintain the suspense for the as yet "unread") is so pathetic. Not even a good fight there, with our hero remaining all trussed up and invisible. I  loved the earlier books for bringing forth the modern commercial  angle like the latest model of the broom and things like that. Like the "Ring" triology, these are also written for a particular period. The Ring, written just after World War II, presents a gloomy picture set just before the beginning of the war, with a hidden menace hovering over the landscape. In this case, the theme of terror is not developed to the full. But may be she is saving it up for the last book. In any case, all good things have to end sometime and now that the stage is set, the endgame may turn out to be the best of all. 

security concerns

Posted on 8/5/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The Patels in the U S seem to be victims of a sting operation by the security agencies. They are being hauled up for selling cough syrup and other ingredients used in making a banned drug. What seem to be happening is that they sell the stuff to undercover agents who try to pose as decoy customers and use the same slang as the drug addicts and make out a case and arrest the store clerks. All so very convenient. If you can't get the guy who did it, get a scapegoat, especially someone who is not exactly conversant with the language, culture or law of the land. Saves the trouble of trying to unravel the truth by undertaking painstaking investigations.   

The Davinci Code

Posted on 7/30/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Just finished reading The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. Good from the point of view of being a thriller, but it in the end, one is left with a feeling of  much ado about a collection of  bones and a controversy of  no consequence. If  the church could survive all these centuries of  scientific revelations about the actual nature of  our world, the great revelation that Jesus Christ had a wife would not exactly finish it off. All the same, very good descriptive passages, excellent research work and suspense.

    Coming to think of it, in this age of  Acquarius, the entire world seems to be passing through a particularly bad patch. Bombs in London, floods in Bombay and militant incidents in Jammu and Kashmir calculated to derail the India-Pakistan talks.

     It would be easy to blame all these on planetary configurations, satan or whatever. Instead of knee-jerk reactions like shooting suspects on sight, like the poor Brazilian in London, a couple of school boys in Jammu and Kashmir, it is high time that the powers that be tried to address the basic problems and grievances. Otherwise, this sort of blood bath may continue.      

dealing with terrorism

Posted on 7/25/2005 - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

What makes a terrorist? A cause that seems to be so overwhelming that they are able to give up their life for it, a resentment so deep that they are willing to do just about anything to achieve their aims or just the feeling that their "martyrdom" would ensure them a place in history and the sheer amount of publicity that accrues or the huge amount of money promised for their next of kin. And what happens whenever a terrorist incident takes place? Wide publicity in every form of media. Every two-bit organisation tries to grab credit for it and everytime their names are mentioned in the media it is one more step to becoming rich and famous. Thus we have the celebrated al quaida, capable of being behind every explosion anywhere in the world. Why can´t terrorists be called just terrorists and their organisations also need not be identified with this kind of fanfare. It is for the investigative agencies to get on with their probe and only after wrapping up the case do they need to give details, if needed of such organisations. Starving them of publicity is the only way to kill such outfits. The fact that they are able to find ready recruits shows that the society has not been able to fathom or remove the basic causes of their alienation. It calls for greater understanding, patience and willingness to listen on the part of the authorities.

of rants and raves

Posted on 7/16/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Even the Internet is not a safe place to rant and rave as happened with New York police officer Edward Polstein who has been fired for operating a web site where officers rant about their jobs. Reminds me of the story about the King who had donkey's ears. This particular fact was a state secret known only to the royal barber who was ordered, on the pain of death, never to disclose it to anyone. The poor chap apparently could not bear to keep such a secret for long, but the fear of losing his head worried him to no end. Finally, he decided to go deep into a forest. He came upon a clump of bamboo trees and decided to announce his secret. He shouted into the hollow trunk '' the king has donkey's ears". After a few years, some villagers came and cut down the bamboo and a flute was made from a piece. Eventually, the flute reached the court musician and when he played it, instead of the musical notes, it was the announcement about the donkey ears that came out. The king must have put everyone from the barber to the court musician to anyone within hearing distance to death, I suppose. Proves my point, it is better to leave certain things unsaid.

what happened to our sense of humor

Posted on 7/14/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

After spending considerable time exploring blogosphere, I have reached the conclusion that it is mostly populated by those who rant and rave, decidedly unhappy lot. Something has to be done to cheer up the place. The main problem seems to be our inability to laugh at ourselves. In Kerala, the Namboothiri bramhmin community had for long had this ability to laugh at themselves and others. They encouraged art forms like Chakiar koothu in which the chakiar, who, while narrating stories from the Hindu epics, makes it a point to poke fun at the audience, regardless of their social stature- King or commoner. It was also a way for conveying criticism of the common people to the king in days of absolute monarchy. However, in present days, such comments would necessarily have to be politically correct lest they offend a particular person, political party or community.

food for thought

Posted on 7/4/2005 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

July Canute has asked me about how one shops in my village. Well, there are no shops nearby as this house is located away from the main road, almost on top of a small hill. So for almost everything, we have to trek down the hill. Of course, these days, the road is tarred but when we were kids, it used to be just a track, wide enough to accommodate a jeep or car. In the absence of any vehicle, we just used to leg it all the way up or down.

The market downtown comprised just one or two shops selling food grain like rice (our staple food which we have for lunch and dinner with different vegetable curries (usually grown in our kitchen garden like pumpkins, snakegourd, ladies fingers, bitter gourd or jack fruit and mangoes in season). I almost forgot about Tapioca, that tasty tuber, introduced during famine years by a King of Travancore. Steam cooked tapioca is a favourite breakfast dish for me.

We eat with our fingers, of course, after washing the hands thoroughly (personal hygiene is much emphasized and the women of the house will enter the kitchen and start cooking only after taking a bath). The food is spicy, with some amount of chillies, turmeric (it lends a yellow colour to our curries, has a certain amount of medicinal value).

We also use buttermilk ( a watery version of yoghurt, the water component may increase depending on the number of mouths to feed). Last of all, there would usually be a dollop of "payasam" (rice mixed with jaggery, served as an offering to the gods. Every Hindu house has a space for "puja" where at least one oil lamp is lit at dawn and dusk and in joint families like ours, elaborate rituals are conducted on a daily basis).

Of course, nowadays, the concept of malls are catching up, though restricted to big towns and cities. Even in New Delhi, where I am staying at present, malls are patronised mainly by somewhat rich people. The common man still prefers the neighbourhood stores.

about my family home

Posted on 7/2/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

This is a picture of my family home in a small village called Poonjar in Kerala state in south India.I was in fact, born in a room in the old tiled building in the background. However, I had spent only some two years in this place, during my childhood. At that time, I was around 11-12 years old when my parents had gone to Madison, Wisconsin in the US as my father got a Ford Foundation scholarship to pursue his post-graduate studies. I had plenty of fun in the company of a number of cousins, nieces and nephews. You see, in our joint family, everyone has got a designated place. That is how I became an uncle as early as four years in age (for this a small explanation is needed. Just a few months after my mother was born as the tenth and the last child, her eldest sister also delivered a girl. This girl was made to address my mom as "cheriyamma" (literally "little mother"). This particular building was designed, I believe, in the late 1940s by one of my uncles, who became a civil engineer. It was one of the first concrete sturctures in the village and since we get a lot of rains from both the monsoons, there had been problems of seepage. From the terrace, one has a good view of the blue-tinged western ghats. The land being rocky, we get sweet water in our wells which had to be drawn up with buckets before we got pumpsets. However, right now, with all of us having grown up and moved into different cities and towns to earn our living, the place is almost on the point of  being locked up. But then change is inevitable in life, I suppose.       

my family home

Posted on 7/2/2005 - 3 Comments - Post Comment - Link

intolerance

Posted on 7/1/2005 - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

I am struck by the growing intolerance in the present day world. Just read that humanists are to meet in Paris next week to forge a common platform against what they see as a growing threat from religions and
religious politicians to secular states across the globe. The meeting,
the World Humanist Congress, is to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the French Law on the Separation of Religion and State, a key document which set France alongside the United States as a bulwark of secularism.

   I have absolutely no quarrel with the noble aims of this body. But do they have to negate religion while pursuing their goals. Religion, as far as I am concerned, is a personal matter and should be left at that. It also provides solace to people at times of difficulties. One could be deeply spiritual as well as a humanist as could be seen from the life of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and several others.

   in fact, we should try to make all these movements more inclusive, cutting across the boundaries of state, religion, race and other manmade barriers to create a better world for ourselves and our children.     

modern day miracles

Posted on 6/25/2005 - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

 

Whenever I switch on an electric light or turn the water tap, I am amazed by the sheer amount of thinking and work that must have gone into making these modern miracles possible. Producing power is such a complex task involving so many people right from the planning stage to building it on site to maintaining it.

So many things that we do as a matter of routine without giving it a second thought are likewise complicated processes which would have been classified as miracles at another age. Instead of learning to appreciate these things, all we do is crib about power and water shortages and the difficulties in earning a living.

Spare a thought for people down a few centuries who had to make do without automobiles, airconditioners or even books and magazines not to speak of lack of modern medical facilities or hospitals.