tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202381952024-02-19T14:30:24.318-08:00floating weedviswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-76097678469787416872023-11-11T20:20:00.000-08:002023-11-11T20:52:23.291-08:00 Economic Diplomacy of the English Ambassador Thomas Roe <div><span style="font-family: arial;">“Courting India: England, Mughal India and the origins of empire” by Nandini Das (published in May 2023) is a fascinating read for those interested in the history of the British entry into India. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As a former diplomat, I enjoyed reading about the experience of Sir Thomas Roe, the first British ambassador to India to the Mughal court of Emperor Jahangir. His mission is a case study for Economic Diplomacy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDhDACirBf8EdzxN_LotWDsr6o-OZZkf5ZiizaIWMRCiwc5oOdP8URHv4kj57aQSKoHaU9r0k6wWeaOXwj6nhGAdjKx5ubW1KF3ER_SR-2l9UvSaxzIbS2d9aCqm5ZhwOi905TYFJjcCz7anykitMmReO1dIXzpBLlhzzXItPvcQRlPvf-lhv/s1500/roe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="975" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDhDACirBf8EdzxN_LotWDsr6o-OZZkf5ZiizaIWMRCiwc5oOdP8URHv4kj57aQSKoHaU9r0k6wWeaOXwj6nhGAdjKx5ubW1KF3ER_SR-2l9UvSaxzIbS2d9aCqm5ZhwOi905TYFJjcCz7anykitMmReO1dIXzpBLlhzzXItPvcQRlPvf-lhv/s320/roe.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;">When East India company started exploring India for business in India in the late sixteenth century, they needed approvals and favours from Emperor Jahangir. They sent to the Mughal court some merchants but they were not taken seriously. So the British decided to send an ambassador to reach out to the emperor. They nominated Sir Thomas Roe, a 35-year old, as ambassador of King James I. <u1:p></u1:p>His diplomatic Instructions clarified that while he represented his king’s ‘honour and dignity’, he had to use all means possible ‘to advance the trade of the East India Company’. Roe’s salary was paid by the East India company. He got 600 pounds as annual salary. He took some advance from which he spent over one hundred pounds to buy dress for himself and livery for his servants. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Roe set out on his voyage on 2 February 1615 and reached Surat after six months of voyage. He had brought fifteen people in his retinue which included a chaplain, a doctor, cook, secretary and even a couple of musicians. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">His first challenge was to establish his authority as ambassador and get special privileges and protocol respect. He had to fight for these starting with the landing in Surat. When he reached Surat on 25 december 1615, they made an announcement to the local authorities about the arrival of an ambassador. But the locals laughed at the title and did not take it seriously. The customs authorities wanted to search his luggage. Roe put his foot down and refused to allow the search claiming special privilege as ambassador. He wrote to Zulfiqar Khan, the governor of the Surat area. Khan replied that customs search was standard procedure but he would make an exception in recognition of Roe’s status<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The ambassador set foot for the first time on Indian soil, welcomed by a volley of shots from the cavalry. But there was another diplomatic tussle. The thirty cavalry men who were to lead the procession to his place of stay were sitting under an open tent and did not rise to greet him. Roe said he would not go until they stood up and did the honours. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The governor invited Roe to pay him a visit. But Roe declined the invitation saying that according to protocol ambassadors could not visit a foreign official first before presenting themselves to the King. Then the governor wanted to meet the commander of the English ship. Roe wrote to commander Keeling, forbidding him from receiving the governor. Finally, Zulfiqar Khan visited Roe at the latter’s residence.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">On 30 October 1615, Roe received Emperor Jahangir’s farmān acknowledging him as ambassador and inviting him to the court as well as commanding Mughal governors on the route to offer all assistance to the ambassador. On the way, Roe stopped in Burhanpur ruled by Parvez, the second son of Jehangir. When he went to see him, the courtiers asked him to bow and offer the customary kurnish (ritual salute) or sijda (full ceremonial prostration). Roe refused. Then they asked him to stand but he demanded a chair to sit. The courtiers then told him politely that ‘as a courtesy’, the prince granted him permission to lean against a nearby pillar.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Roe's biggest challenge was that the powerful, large and wealthy Mughal emperor and his court did not take England, the English King and his ambassador seriously. Emperor Jahangir was far more broadminded and progressive in his outlook in comparison to the protestant ambassador who was belittling the catholic Portuguese. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Roe had brought gifts for the Emperor and the Mughal dignitaries. But these were looked down as insignificant and poor in comparison. Jahangir’s own ambassador to Shah Abbas, the ruler of Persia, had given gifts of elephants, gold and silver. The Persian ambassador gave gifts of horses and camels besides precious stones to Emperor Jahangir. Roe’s only gifts Emperor Jahangir and his son Prince Khurram (later..Shajahan) enjoyed were the wines.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">During his posting for three years as ambassador, Roe had managed to get some trade concessions from the Mughals for East India company. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Roe had attended Jehangir’s court regularly and cultivated some senior advisors and family members of the Emperor. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">He tried hard to advance the English interests at the expense of Portuguese and Dutch but the Mughals were ahead in the game. They made the Europeans to compete with each other for favours. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Roe wrote about his daily activities, success and failures in his diaries as well as in his letters to the Company and to his friends. Some of these, reproduced in the book, are interesting.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-19391072536039667662023-06-02T20:09:00.045-07:002023-06-02T20:31:26.213-07:00My life as a comrade - Malayali Marxist Shilaja’s book<div><span style="font-family: arial;">During my Latin America lectures in the Kerala University in Trivandrum in recent months, I found the students knowledgeable about the Pink Tide, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Gabriel Boric. It is not surprising given the Marxist roots in the state, which had made history by electing the first Marxist government in the world in 1957. Since then, the state has elected Marxists to power many times including in the last elections in 2021. During interactions with the students, I realized that Marxism in Kerala is more than a political ideology. It has become a way of life, good or bad. <u1:p></u1:p>This is confirmed by Shilaja’s book, “My life as a comrade: The Story of an Extraordinary Politician and the World That Shaped Her”. Shailaja became famous as the health minister of the state who managed the covid crisis successfully setting an example for other states. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA8VOx_0Fihh183mlLkT5rmUqafPg4ASITI2XsV4e95tH_Z8Yzxk2pyjnnhnaiDJiHjuTAlPRYtx5EGb2hfRR3DVcmyhktquzB3eA4alYnNck-AY7nQYNRow7l1i4sgD--bD3KdcAs86bkiD1Tr3bF6armsVsK_b-R1iCNAwkctdeDT-imQ/s500/comrade.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA8VOx_0Fihh183mlLkT5rmUqafPg4ASITI2XsV4e95tH_Z8Yzxk2pyjnnhnaiDJiHjuTAlPRYtx5EGb2hfRR3DVcmyhktquzB3eA4alYnNck-AY7nQYNRow7l1i4sgD--bD3KdcAs86bkiD1Tr3bF6armsVsK_b-R1iCNAwkctdeDT-imQ/s320/comrade.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Shailaja says, “I was – and still am – definitely an idealist, extremely interested in the theory of politics. I’ve always been curious about the systems that brought our society to where it is. I had skated over the principles of Marx but I thought I needed to understand those better. He spoke about dialectic materialism, where the pursuit of material wants causes conflict between opposing forces of nature. He believed we need to be catalysts for good. Marx said we must struggle for rights; it was right to do so”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She asserts, “the spiritual guidance for my work, and indeed my life, has been provided by communist ideology. It has helped me work through doubt and indecision repeatedly during more than thirty years of public service. Having a philosophy or a belief that is larger than us helps us deal with the minute disappointments that pepper our lives.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2018, on my very first trip to London, I was asked what I wanted to see. The answer was simple: Karl Marx’s cemetery in Highgate Park. It had been a long-held dream, and the experience was perfect”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">To start with, she was dragged into politics because of her family. She says, “ I come from a family in politics but not a family of politicians. My life story is built on the history of many people, including my grandmother and my uncles. I stand on their legacy. It is they who taught me about politics – what it means, why it’s important”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> <br /></u1:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She says, “My journey into politics was made possible because of the socio-political milieu I was part of. I come from a family of people who get involved in problems, in struggles, who believe in working for change. But we had no clout, no connections, except for those forged on public battlefields. However, the structure of the communist Party, which has been our mainstay for generations, was rise of a dedicated Party worker, one rank at a time. Along the way, opportunities and encouragement from others, coupled with my tenacity and a belief that we can make a difference, have pushed me forward. This is my story. But it is also the story of the Malabar, and the growth of communism in Kerala.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She took to politics seriously after her family members and friends were subjected to harassment and suffering during the Emergency period. She says, “Watching the injustice of many intellectuals, writers, politicians and others being incarcerated, the attack on India’s democratic and federalist ideals, made me aware of how fragile our system was. Observing the events of that year, especially my uncle’s ordeal during that time, and becoming more aware of the inequity of power and resources around me, communism and Marxian thought started to make even more sense. The unfairness of it hit hard. Deciding at that moment that politics was going to be my way forward, I became a member of the Madathil CPI(M) branch in 1977”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She started from the bottom, working her way up through the disciplined hierarchy of the CPI(M). She started with organization of women’s groups in her area. It was a challenging assignment to get the women out of their patriarchal houses and educate and empower them. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Shailaja extends her personal conviction to her state itself with a bold statement, “most Malayalis are socialists at heart and that is what makes Kerala exemplary. Socialism has made its way into our collective psyche through popular culture and literature”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">However, she admits, “I am not a scholar, and I don’t have high educational qualifications. I have a basic degree, and I am a schoolteacher, that is all. I studied Marxist philosophy and accepted it deeply, and that is what has impacted my life”.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Her husband, also a comrade, was a generous soul who took a back seat and let the wife shine.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Shailaja was dropped from the new cabinet formed after the 2021 elections by Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan who saw her as a rival for his chair, especially after the popularity she had earned in India and the world during covid.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">While Shailaja sees the world through Marxism, she is pragmatic and realistic. She respects the democratic rules and the opponents. She believes in working with civil servants and the existing system to get the best for the society.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She ends the book saying, “So, my life as a comrade continues”. future chief minister, for sure..</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I guess, Shailaja’s story is typical of the life stories of millions of Malayalis who have embraced Marxism as a way of life.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-90997957208849875702023-03-19T22:04:00.001-07:002023-03-19T22:22:19.266-07:00Victory City – novel by Salman Rushdie<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Victory City is the latest novel of Salman Rushdie. He jumps straight into ‘magical realism’ with the opening line itself: “On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kam-pana completed her immense narrative poem about Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax in the heart of the ruined Royal Enclosure, as a message to the future. Four and a half centuries later we found that pot and read for the first time the immortal masterpiece named the Jayaparajaya, meaning ‘Victory and Defeat’, written in the Sanskrit language, as long as the Ramayana, made up of twenty-four thousand verses, and we learned the secrets of the empire she had concealed from history for more than one hundred and sixty thousand days”.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju_qSPMTBXSqKepoaA-0KfawfX9rPLeZoacVqQzLkD3pAhevDR0DUJh-qpdeGhiYkZDMkIjkbG-wUs22e9U8tAp7XYJa_UowuCOwifFi8fjIicFrGDxVlUwJqAbAjqKm4868Put0TgJ2WLhMKqQ28_y9DQewsmf-ysFTDwRRZizlSKnKVOWA/s1800/victorycity.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju_qSPMTBXSqKepoaA-0KfawfX9rPLeZoacVqQzLkD3pAhevDR0DUJh-qpdeGhiYkZDMkIjkbG-wUs22e9U8tAp7XYJa_UowuCOwifFi8fjIicFrGDxVlUwJqAbAjqKm4868Put0TgJ2WLhMKqQ28_y9DQewsmf-ysFTDwRRZizlSKnKVOWA/s320/victorycity.jpeg" width="228" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Rushdie takes the reader on an eventful journey through the three hundred years (1336-1646) history of Vijayanagara empire in which he has woven magic imaginatively and entertainingly. Kampana, the protoganist, throws seeds which become the Vijaynagara (Bisnaga) empire with cities, palaces, walls and markets. She then whispers into the ears of the rulers and the people who come alive in the new empire. At the end, when she is blinded by emperor Krishnadevaraya and the empire is ending, the descendants of the original inhabitants start whispering their lives into her ears helping her to complete the writing of history. Things go into reverse, as if rivers had started flowing upstream. <br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: arial;">Rushdie revels in magical realism with passages like this: “In the city of Zerelda, time flies. Every day the citizens, who know that life is short, rush about with large nets trying to capture the minutes and hours that float around just above their heads like brightly coloured butterflies. The lucky ones who capture a little time and gulp it down – it’s easily edible, and quite delicious – have their lives elongated. But time is elusive, and many fail”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Rushdie teases the readers saying, “This is that story, retold in plainer language by the present author, who is neither a scholar nor a poet but merely a spinner of yarns, and who offers this version for the simple entertainment and possible edification of today’s readers, the old and the young, the educated and the not so educated, those in search of wisdom and those amused by folly, northerners and southerners, followers of different gods and of no gods, the broad-minded and the narrow-minded, men and women and members of the genders beyond and in between, scions of the nobility and rank commoners, good people and rogues, charlatans and foreigners, humble sages, and egotistical fools”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Rushdie pronounces and provokes on contemporary political and social issues of India. While describing the conflicts between the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar and the Muslim sultanates he dives into religious intolerance, puritanism and fanaticism. He has made references to the stories of Mahabharath and Ramayana. But after having learnt his lesson from the reaction to Satanic Verses, Rushdie has avoided danger this time by his subtle narratives and subdued language. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Throughout the novel, he has thrown pearls of wisdom thrown here and there:</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">-History is the consequence not only of people’s actions, but also of their forgetfulness.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">-The miraculous and the everyday are two halves of a single whole, and that we ourselves are the gods we seek to worship, and capable of mighty deeds.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">-The truth of the world is that people act according to their natures, and that is what will happen.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is the memorable ending of the novel...<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">She was two hundred and forty-seven years old. These were her last words. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I, Pampa Kampana, am the author of this book. I have lived to see an empire rise and fall. How are they remembered now, these kings, these queens? They exist now only in words. While they lived, they were victors, or vanquished, or both. Now they are neither. Words are the only victors. What they did, or thought, or felt, no longer exists. Only these words describing those things remain. They will be remembered in the way I have chosen to remember them. Their deeds will only be known in the way they have been set down. They will mean what I wish them to mean. I myself am nothing now. All that remains is this city of words. Words are the only victors.<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: arial;">I enjoyed this book in the way as I did in the case of most of his other novels. I admire Rushdie’s extraordinary talents as a writer and story-teller. I believe he deserves Nobel Prize. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br /></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-6372278818100055932023-01-07T17:46:00.038-08:002023-01-08T06:38:59.455-08:00Thiyagaraja Aradhana, a unique musical experience... <p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yesterday I went to the annual Thiyagaraja Aradhana (worship) Music Festival at Thiruvaiyaru, 25 kms from my village. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I had been to this festival in 2019. But this time it is bigger with 294 concerts (242 last time) packed into six days from 6 to 11 January. This is the 176th year of organisation of the festival</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Every day, the festival starts off in the morning and ends in the night with Nadhaswaram concerts. In the 2023 edition, there are a total of 80 Nadhaswaram concerts. This is interesting in view of the fact that Nadhaswaram and the accompanying drum instrument Thavil are not considered as part of classical Carnatic Music. But no marriage is conducted or temple procession held without the accompaniment of the auspicious music of Nadhaswaram. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoKrS6GBT27fm63rrlDz_31h0QNBVYDQOlt-EVJX8MHh_HdgRhrCeupi3l1ovbZuOsSOfOWrXrZCp1YJg4AAN77WXABvJeyAePrtXKws8-iekzyd5g2htpIuzerfwzXLP6aYOnqkkr9X5CdktIaEDI0_K8Kp73J4ewU1j7mzOGJRavxkLaw/s2048/aradhana23.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoKrS6GBT27fm63rrlDz_31h0QNBVYDQOlt-EVJX8MHh_HdgRhrCeupi3l1ovbZuOsSOfOWrXrZCp1YJg4AAN77WXABvJeyAePrtXKws8-iekzyd5g2htpIuzerfwzXLP6aYOnqkkr9X5CdktIaEDI0_K8Kp73J4ewU1j7mzOGJRavxkLaw/s320/aradhana23.jpeg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are some Veena, and Violin concerts too although most are vocal performances. </span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />This festival should be one of the most efficiently organised events in India with strict adherence to punctuality. Each artiste is given slot of 20 or 15 or 10 minutes. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a typical page from the program booklet..</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKM_AhoghRhqHpeZQaSi4AMBZEroAV0PFCS0EgwekxXINZnbLOVOpbMgZIz-KyxCrVjImHPaDaWJJ3iaDfKo6B2M0fPwVo2kaYiWjtRukVgUjR21f0uVaoc9MuJebYl1syONk7b0H6qUJ5haPhqkLfrTu17DZfNA0gVlJHt0KJW8qAraykOw/s2880/Screenshot%202023-01-08%20at%207.06.05%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKM_AhoghRhqHpeZQaSi4AMBZEroAV0PFCS0EgwekxXINZnbLOVOpbMgZIz-KyxCrVjImHPaDaWJJ3iaDfKo6B2M0fPwVo2kaYiWjtRukVgUjR21f0uVaoc9MuJebYl1syONk7b0H6qUJ5haPhqkLfrTu17DZfNA0gVlJHt0KJW8qAraykOw/s320/Screenshot%202023-01-08%20at%207.06.05%20AM.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But a few minutes before the end of each performance, the next group has to sit on the second stage and be ready to start in time. This is how 60 concerts are organised each day from 9 am to 1020 pm. <br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwqPA60Md8l7MVSRNQgaTDSc_yEP7FuT-2XhkG91ljKxnaYhI4LcmNaRsVzryILEh1xNGx-K0ffk_mhDj2E4JcN45hxc38YPgDWtrgEDf-zgxIrXcPLQTAnf4H5hk3si-d-afn4VqnMXxFzyE_IMUfAv9G4FMWV4GeEMSYd3IKcWpa8TR4A/s2048/aradana223.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwqPA60Md8l7MVSRNQgaTDSc_yEP7FuT-2XhkG91ljKxnaYhI4LcmNaRsVzryILEh1xNGx-K0ffk_mhDj2E4JcN45hxc38YPgDWtrgEDf-zgxIrXcPLQTAnf4H5hk3si-d-afn4VqnMXxFzyE_IMUfAv9G4FMWV4GeEMSYd3IKcWpa8TR4A/s320/aradana223.jpeg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The artistes perform not for money but as payment of tribute to Thiyagaraja, the most famous composer of Carnatic music who lived from 1767 to 1847. The stage faces on the other side the samadhi (tomb) of Thiyagaraja where his body was cremated.<br /><br />Although the audience is very small in the mornings and afternoon, the crowd increases in the evening when the famous artistes like Sudha Ragunathan perform. The audience has to sit on the sand floor and enjoy the breeze coming from the Cauvery river on one side and the aroma of the filter coffee made on the other side of the venue.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS18VibUh3Fuxc4vGoHdoCW0fhkvyQbxziF01gp8J3I6zEOX5vpKgZbZHLws7ORvkeDcPg1Kt2K70pkMMr-f9gT0APYQ9EGCKVWBTv0plYAKVi9Dm44eVCFmofPS6DABaCPq8nfcR_Jr_yPI7lprHh9ZR1bRfe66EvFYtZ5gP4fYtgMWOPLA/s2048/aradana323.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS18VibUh3Fuxc4vGoHdoCW0fhkvyQbxziF01gp8J3I6zEOX5vpKgZbZHLws7ORvkeDcPg1Kt2K70pkMMr-f9gT0APYQ9EGCKVWBTv0plYAKVi9Dm44eVCFmofPS6DABaCPq8nfcR_Jr_yPI7lprHh9ZR1bRfe66EvFYtZ5gP4fYtgMWOPLA/s320/aradana323.jpeg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />The residents of Thiruvaiyaru can listen to the music from the loud speakers put up in the main streets of the town.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The festival is open to the public free of cost. There are no tickets. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There are people who travel from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to watch this concert. Many compositions of the composer Thiyagaraja are in Telugu language.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is a colorful member of the audience enjoying himself while putting up a show of his own..</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9tSo7JMuSHHiRPjV_KyrzJ1yLJcGERe7cziVRdcsZ41YP0MxzGUBryYnWbaPKTsdHi5xvO5RuALywS3JwW97hbblhLbpjNT74bjtfOUL6rdxHZVzGQAqHG5gjbsCwxK_kD9DEP2fDw9yGqBr52JAiN6d-lHCNnI-_Uwzt66ME5ZsKjwQTQ/s2048/aradana423.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9tSo7JMuSHHiRPjV_KyrzJ1yLJcGERe7cziVRdcsZ41YP0MxzGUBryYnWbaPKTsdHi5xvO5RuALywS3JwW97hbblhLbpjNT74bjtfOUL6rdxHZVzGQAqHG5gjbsCwxK_kD9DEP2fDw9yGqBr52JAiN6d-lHCNnI-_Uwzt66ME5ZsKjwQTQ/s320/aradana423.jpeg" width="240" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;">Here is a blog I wrote on the 2019 Aradhana with the title Carnatic music flowing into Cauvery river</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2019/01/carnatic-music-flowing-into-cauvery.html">https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2019/01/carnatic-music-flowing-into-cauvery.html</a><br /><br />The Thiyagaraja Aradhana is certainly one of the largest, most unusual and interesting classical music festivals in the world. It is a unique and memorable musical experience<br /></span><br /></div></div></div></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-64819457053524484772022-03-17T21:41:00.000-07:002022-03-17T21:41:11.892-07:00 “Karunanidhi: A Life” – book by A S Panneerselvan<span style="font-family: arial;"> “Karunanidhi: A Life” – book by A S Panneerselvan<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I bought the book instinctively when I saw a quote of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (one of my favourite Latin American writers) in the author’s introduction, “ I told Karunanidhi I was using Gerald Martin’s biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a model. I shared with him what Marquez told the biographer: ‘Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life. What Márquez meant to Martin is what Karunanidhi means to me”.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0higkkcX_ZW0vfbI_m9aoxedApUL16uQlZMZcIp_Z7yV3_2Oh6i0e8bUOwjF29kOiYwU_V9tEZqjIy_Kp0it21LhESNwnMhtz_liM8n4Oa10h5eRTONF6uIkoAx8smtktZINdJZNrg9zzBp6Fegcga-MEY4xd6lCoplkCMrzKZcLGLbG_w/s500/karunanidhi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0higkkcX_ZW0vfbI_m9aoxedApUL16uQlZMZcIp_Z7yV3_2Oh6i0e8bUOwjF29kOiYwU_V9tEZqjIy_Kp0it21LhESNwnMhtz_liM8n4Oa10h5eRTONF6uIkoAx8smtktZINdJZNrg9zzBp6Fegcga-MEY4xd6lCoplkCMrzKZcLGLbG_w/s320/karunanidhi.jpeg" width="202" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">As a journalist, Panneerselvan had interacted with Karunanidhi and those close to him from the family and party. He had worked on the book off and on for about twenty years.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The book gives a glimpse of the life and achievements of Karunanidhi whose talents and achievements are admirable. He is a rare combination of a creative writer with extraordinary oratorical talents, visionary leadership, political instincts, organizational skills and administrative competence. It is even more amazing in the light of the fact that he did not complete school education after having failed repeatedly in the final year school examination. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Karunanidhi was a prolific writer. He has written scripts for 67 films starting with “ Rajakumari” in 2011 and “Ponnar Sankar” in 2011. He has authored 46 short stories, 13 plays, 10 novels, 2 novellas and 7000 letters he wrote daily in Murasoli newspaper. He also wrote literary pieces and lyrics for some film songs. He had even acted in some of the plays. His autobiography nenjikku needhi ( justice to the Conscience) runs into several volumes. He edited newspapers and magazines. An early riser, he used to finish most of his writing before breakfast and before the arrival of party cadres. The combination of prodigious talent, strict discipline and a work ethic was the secret of Karunanidhi’s prolific output as a writer. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">He was a mesmerizing orator with a unique style of poetic expressions, inimitable humour, witty word play and inspiring ideas. I remember how I was moved to cry while listening to his eulogy in radio when Annadurai died in 1969.There is no other Tamil political leader who could match Karunanidhi’s speeches.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Karunanidhi was chief minister of <span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">Tamil Nadu for five terms and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for over five decades. He </span>has a record of victory in all the 13 times he stood for elections. He was a star campaigner and strategist for DMK party. He got more ministerial posts in the coalition governments in Delhi and got more than the due share of the state from the central governments through skillful negotiations. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The author has put Karunanidhi’s life’s events in the context of the larger political developments in the state, the country and in the world. One such larger issue was the anti-Brahmin movement in the state and Karunanidhi’s promotion of Tamil language and non-Brahmins. The author cites an incident in one of the Thiagaraja Aradhana music festivals in Thiruvaiyaru. The musicians who participated in the festival used to sing only in Sanskrit and Telugu and not in Tamil. The reason for this was the fact that the Trinity of Composers of Carnatic music comprising Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri had composed only in Telugu and Sanskrit. Many of the Brahmin singers and composers looked down on Tamil considering it as a language of the lower castes. For them, Sanskrit was the divine language. During an annual festival, one of the singers rendered a Tamil song at the end of his performance in honour of Tyagaraja. The next singer refused to sing till the place was ‘purified’ as it had been polluted with a Tamil song. The organizers immediately called for priests to perform a special puja to purify the place; they cleaned the concert stage with holy water and then invited the next singer to perform. Reacting to this Karunanidhi had said, “‘My music classes were in reality my first political class. I learnt about the subjugation of human beings based on their caste; I could witness the glee with which some people could humiliate others as well as the self-righteousness of others in practising their customs without even realizing that they are ill-treating a vast majority of the people”.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">While the author has covered the achievements of Karunanidhi, he has not gone into the failures, mistakes, electoral defeats of the party, corruption allegations and dynastic politics. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br /></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-9463784911926223992021-10-14T19:09:00.025-07:002021-10-15T00:02:51.336-07:00 Saraswati, the goddess of learning<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Yesterday was Saraswati Poojai. I do not believe in poojas and gods. I am an atheist, typical of the generation which was influenced and shaped by the Dravidian social reformist movements in Tamilnadu. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Beyond my atheistic mindset, there is a secret image of Saraswati in my heart. I remember fondly the Saraswati Poojas in my childhood. The image of Saraswati as the goddess of learning, wisdom and arts had fascinated and inspired me as a child and has been etched strongly in my memory. I liked the picture of the goddess sitting on the white lotus flower with a book in the hand. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYv0-qwh94tLsj3SStSYJQwFbCrN0D123ID6Z6OeABsia79Q_TBEjlbadraoA5g4b6UxY5GOvvah-xsRw22YH0Fa1eGcNUxeST3yYs_WGndyUNppvabob111c8naZ94Jou2j9Xw/s800/saraswati.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYv0-qwh94tLsj3SStSYJQwFbCrN0D123ID6Z6OeABsia79Q_TBEjlbadraoA5g4b6UxY5GOvvah-xsRw22YH0Fa1eGcNUxeST3yYs_WGndyUNppvabob111c8naZ94Jou2j9Xw/s320/saraswati.jpeg" width="252" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">As a kid, I was fond of books and tried to read whatever I could get hold of and whenever I could. But my illiterate uncle, who brought me up did not believe in Saraswati. He worshipped Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. He believed that pursuit of agriculture was the best way to invite Lakshmi into the home. Unknowingly my illiterate uncle believed in the Thirukkural.. <br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">உழுதுண்டு</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">வாழ்வாரே</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">வாழ்வார்மற்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">றெல்லாம்<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">தொழுதுண்டு</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">பின்செல்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">பவர்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></o:p></span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(Life with a plow is the real life<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The rest are those who follow behind)<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></o:p></span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My uncle would scold me if he saw me with a book in hand outside the school days. So I would hide the book behind my back while walking around the fields. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I had access only to the school text books. No one bought non-text books in the village. There were no books at home in the house of my illiterate uncle and aunt. Neither my elementary school in Raramuthiraikottai nor my high school in Mariammankovil had libraries. Fortunately the village Panchayat Board building had some books including epics such as Ponniyin Selvan and Sivakamiyin Sabadam. But they had only some parts of the several volumes. So I would go to other village panchayat boards to get the missing parts. Poondi Pushpam college where I went after school had a large library. I was thrilled to read so many books and magazines outside my chemistry subject. I read so many Tamil poems... And I got carried away..I wanted to become a poet. In fact, I had applied for MA Tamil Literature in Pachaiyappa’s College, Madras. But my Tamil professor in Poondi college advised me against that and persuaded me to study MSc chemistry which would have more job opportunities. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">While working as a junior lecturer in Pachaiyappas College, I used to carry non-chemistry books to the staff room for reading to prepare for the civil service examination. Some of my senior colleagues would laugh behind my back and thought that I was delusional. So I had to hide the general knowledge books from the colleagues.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I was lucky that my reading resulted in the selection to the Indian Foreign Service. During the whole career of thirty five years I had to constantly keep up reading every day to update my knowledge of international affairs. Posting in different countries every three years meant that I had to study and learn about different cultures, markets and political systems. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Since my retirement in 2012, I follow the advice of Bharathiar… <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%88" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">காலை</span></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"> </span>எழுந்தவுடன் </span><a href="https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BF" style="color: #954f72; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" title="கல்வி"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">படிப்பு</span></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"> - </span>பின்பு<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">கனிவு</span> கொடுக்கும் நல்ல </span><a href="https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%9F%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%9F%E0%AF%81" style="color: #954f72; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" title="பாட்டு"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">பாட்டு<br /></span></a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">மாலை</span> முழுதும் விளையாட்டு - என்று<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">வழக்கப்</span> படுத்திக்கொள்ளு பாப்பா.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">(Reading in the morning <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Listening to music later<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Playing in the evening<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Make this as the habit)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I read in the morning, play golf in the afternoon and listen to music in the evening with a drink, which Bharathi missed out mentioning..<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I keep a little bronze idol of Saraswati on my desk which reminds me every day the importance and joy of reading and learning. But the more I read, the more I realise the wisdom of the Tamil poet Avvaiyar.. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">கற்றது</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">கை</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">மண்</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">அளவு</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">கல்லாதது</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">உலகளவு</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">(what one has learnt is just handful of sand..what is more to learn is vast like the earth)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-79546535045289753092021-01-11T01:03:00.116-08:002021-01-11T03:46:26.474-08:00Ved Mehta: From a blind child to a celebrity writer<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Indians go to US for higher education, jobs and some of them to settle down in the Promised Land. But Ved Mehta who became blind at the age of three went to US for a different reason in 1949 when he was fifteen. In his own words, “I constantly dreamed of and worked on getting out of India and making my way to the West, where my disability would not be perceived as a barrier to education”. He got admission in a school for the blind in Little Rock, Arkansas. He went to Harvard and Oxford universities for higher studies. He settled in New York and became an American citizen in 1975. He was a staff writer for New Yorker from 1960 to 1993. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: arial;">Besides writing, he taught in Yale and New York universities.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He started writing for New Yorker magazine, when was a college student. He published his first book, an autobiography, when he was 23. He says that he wrote it out of a feeling that he could partly alleviate a life of deprivation, by writing about it. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">He was proud that he had earned his livelihood with his pen, since his 20s. His chosen method for improvement of his writing was to read and reread works of masters such as Shakespeare and Milton.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Mehta is the author of 27 books of fiction and non-fiction covering a variety of themes such as </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Indian politics, Oxford Dons and American education. He has written</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> a monumental autobiography “Continents of Exile”, in twelve installments between 1972 and 2004. He calls it as a cross- cultural story of India, England and US. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mehta became blind at the age of four due to meningitis. Since then, his life was about overcoming the disability. He says,” I had to prove every day to everyone that I was able to do things that they thought I could not do. Whenever people tried to help or protect me, they jarred my self- confidence and dulled my senses”. To prove to others, he drove cycle in his childhood and car in his youth to impress his date, much to the consternation of others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpu9k-GDRavIYT_V9i8zVJ4k-Yqg7UoLEEZod_6KJnsmbh2i33NRvYZWCp1QA9Z6qwJvaSN7BxLWtxT1OpD9vhqRIHNUyHJ5i_Cxzb07QG1Uk622SfxEeouFe4inHqAI9Ug6FPg/s1500/ved+mehta.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpu9k-GDRavIYT_V9i8zVJ4k-Yqg7UoLEEZod_6KJnsmbh2i33NRvYZWCp1QA9Z6qwJvaSN7BxLWtxT1OpD9vhqRIHNUyHJ5i_Cxzb07QG1Uk622SfxEeouFe4inHqAI9Ug6FPg/s320/ved+mehta.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Every day of his life was struggle for him, as he admits, “ There was hardly a day that I did not feel defeated, condenscended to and humiliated- when I did not long to be spared the incessant indignities that assailed me”. Reliance on his own will to overcome his disability made him feel lonely and the pain of loneliness was unrelenting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He compares himself to those blessed with eye sight saying, “I was in the grip of the fantasy that I could see. Even then I maintained the habit of checking external reality. I never accidentally walked off a cliff, for instance. Without such continual checking, I could not have survived in the sighted world. But the sighted can think what they like about the blind without feeling the need to check the reality of the blind. Every moment, I instinctively translated into images any and all information received by my sharpened senses. I was creating my own reality, seeing things in my own way- only imagining that what I saw was identical to what other people saw”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He sought romantic relationship during his college years but found that girls were prepared to be friends with him but generally spurned any romantic overtures. It was only after he started writing and publishing that girls took romantic interest in him. He has written about his romance and muses in the book “ All for love”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mehta died on 9 January 2021. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In his website, he says, " Deprivation often makes a writer". </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am inspired by his life story and achievements. As I struggle with my own amateurish occasional writings, I am encouraged by his statement,"Some forty years after I published my first book I am struggling with words and sentences, drafts and alterations. I was constantly tempted to put off writing, a process which is turbulent and involves a lot of angst."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-14926342122447040472020-12-31T20:33:00.093-08:002021-01-01T04:04:58.233-08:00New Year Inspiration<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;">While most of the world was depressed counting the number of corona cases and deaths every day, Sandhya, the college student, had celebrated 2020 writing a blog every day of the year. This was her New Year Resolution on 31 december 2019. Yesterday she wrote, "366 days and 366 posts. I have written so much, so widely- exploring books, thoughts, experiences, food, and much more! The journey of blogging everyday has been a happy spark in the otherwise dull year." She says, "I've been experimenting now with not just book reviews, but other subjects like movies, interesting ideas that bounce around my head"</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sandhya started her blog in April 2010, when she was twelve years old. She wrote 295 posts till 31 December 2019. She has now added an incredible 366 in 2020. It is not just amazing in quantity. Her blogs are inspiring, moving, educative, thought provoking and entertaining. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitw12KV_2ayNFdQUS8g9VFE4S-Db5TzJb_KLV59drCMDCp4upjhdH_glsnsC6DBv5MN5umuGXWkExqKKBJL_-Qnoc-aUYWWWF9O4cGnSRq2rJdbik2PFJKgbFa13kANK3KJWKSHw/s640/sandhya.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitw12KV_2ayNFdQUS8g9VFE4S-Db5TzJb_KLV59drCMDCp4upjhdH_glsnsC6DBv5MN5umuGXWkExqKKBJL_-Qnoc-aUYWWWF9O4cGnSRq2rJdbik2PFJKgbFa13kANK3KJWKSHw/s320/sandhya.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">She is a child prodigy. She had devoured books eagerly like the kids go after ice cream and chocolates. She relishes poetry, novels and non-fiction, besides her own subject of law. She studies law at the National Law Institute, Ahmedabad. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Her reading list includes PG Wodehouse, Charles Dickens, Steinbeck, Ayn Rand, Crichton, Harari, Che Guevara and Einstein. In her own words, " I read fiction and non-fiction, classics and contemporary writing, thrillers, humour, sci-fi, tragedies and comedies, poetry and prose, and quite a few plays. I read new authors, and old ones. I read books on shoes, horses, rabbits, beasts, bandits, and humans; read on businesses and their success, and one even on its failure. I read fantasy on one side, and memoirs on the other. I read the small ones, the medium, and the big, covering the popular ones and the barely known. I read some history, and some chemistry, and a little lit of law, too". She has read over sixty books in 2020 and hopes to cross hundred in 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">She started serious reading since when she was five. Eloor library in Chennai was what nurtured her reading. She says, " I remember going there every weekend, and picking up four or five books to read through the week. In fact, that is the library that has literally seen me grow into the reader I am today. From the Beetle series, that had just a big picture and a single small line in a page, to binge reading series like the Famous Five, Amelia Jane, Sleepover Girls, Harry Potter and Hardy boys, to slowly exploring H G Wells, Robert Stevenson, and the children’s classics section that held Heidi, Hans Brinker and Silver Skates, Treasure Island, Little Women and the likes, to obsessing over the racks of Agatha Christie, Perry Mason, Robin Cook and Dan Brown, to graduating into Shaw, Dickens, Tolkien and the likes, as I grew older, the library has given me everything!". </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">She loves short stories. She says, "Short stories are wonderful. I love them. They can introduce you to a new author, they can turn a day around, they can make you marvel at the clever narrative, and make you fall in love with some of your favourite characters all over again"</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">She wrote her first novel " Wizile" in 2012, when she was in school. She has written two more novels (Much Of A Muchness and Sir Antiquarian) and another book on football.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sandhya has a gift of English language with a rich vocabulary. She writes fluently and spontaneously. But what is more interesting is that she has developed strict discipline and focussed mission with which she lets her talents to flourish and soar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">On her record of 366 blogs in 2020, Sandhya reflects, "This year has been all about me writing my way through my thoughts, and anything at all that comes to my mind. Sometimes the thoughts are deep, sometimes just off the surface; sometimes the thoughts are original, sometimes borrowed (with due credit always given); sometimes it's ranting, and sometimes there are solutions. But, 2021 can't roll the same way for me- it's high time I move on and focus more on the content in the coming year. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; widows: 2;">So, writing regularly for a year now has made me realize what I want to focus on writing more about. Of course, the books, the thoughts, the fun rants- they're all here to stay, just that I look forward to regulate them more so that I plan out time to write the stuff that I have been meaning to, more often."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; widows: 2;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sandhya is not only a reader and writer but a guru too.. She advises five lessons for aspiring writers :<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Don't be scared to start<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Focus one day at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Set small landmarks, and celebrate small victories.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Roll with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. How you see things around you, changes when you work on yourself. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So what are her plans for 2021? Having succeeded quantitativly exploring many subjects, now she wants to narrow her focus this year to write stories and academic posts. She ' loves writing short, concise, thoughtful academic posts in law, and even on academics itself'. She has asked her readers to give suggestions for reading and writing and welcomes comments on her blogs in the website <a href="http://sandhya.varadh.com/" style="color: #954f72;">http://sandhya.varadh.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I will go beyond Sandhya’s 2021 plan with the prediction that she has the promise of a literary figure in the future. My favourite author Mario Vargas Llosa has written a manual for aspiring writers in his book " Letters to a young novelist". In this, he says, " a person develops precociously in childhood or teenage a penchant for dreaming up people, situations, anecdotes and worlds different from the world in which she or he lives, questions real life ( </span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;">raison <span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5);">d'être</span> of literature) and become rebellious. Such inclination is the first sign of a literary vocation. But there is an abyss that the vast majority of human beings never cross between the propensity to retreat from the real life into imagination and the actual practice of literature. Those who do cross and become creator of worlds with the written word are the writers, the minority who have reinforced their penchant with an exertion of the will called as ‘Choice’ by Sartre. I believe that Sandhya has exercised this ‘choice’. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Sandhya is my inspiration for 2021. Happy New Year...</span><span style="color: #050505;"> </span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-47077578134051506322020-12-17T20:41:00.053-08:002020-12-17T21:30:00.213-08:00 Birds and birdies...<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Golfers dream ... birdies, eagles and albatrosses..</span></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Birds and birdie-seeking golfers fill the golf courses with their colourful feather and costumes as well as songs of joy and cries of pain..</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">DLF Golf Club has published and gifted to us (members)copy of a Coffee Table book " The birds of DLF5 Golf Links. There are 101 species of birds such as pochards, koels, pigeons, herons, cuckoos, swallows, coots, hornbills, kingfishers, parakeets, warblers, bulbuls, mynas and cormorants sharing the golf course with the players. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-e0grqvW2zDUQ-enF-Hf2TTG9YEY0C6EsQDyLwK1plgj3hR6BGnkZPaXdCvtOAHaIUpSakFCTsCCHfqpQr7phBy9bTTAYugZozNM2vYTY7ML6qyQJXe8IF4UJuQefgAILCu6smw/s2048/birds.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-e0grqvW2zDUQ-enF-Hf2TTG9YEY0C6EsQDyLwK1plgj3hR6BGnkZPaXdCvtOAHaIUpSakFCTsCCHfqpQr7phBy9bTTAYugZozNM2vYTY7ML6qyQJXe8IF4UJuQefgAILCu6smw/s320/birds.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15ewZe388yIczgmN_tp3bPgOYVj9ueF4MljvLA39niaTWjUVLEGB1EbH-_1PhvCkqICdfmjuCUEdnK1JMhTZtqlL5rlrbVhxqPLuK5op7M5_JpdVRphwkOUYWzkUY06PbvgyOsg/s2048/birds1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15ewZe388yIczgmN_tp3bPgOYVj9ueF4MljvLA39niaTWjUVLEGB1EbH-_1PhvCkqICdfmjuCUEdnK1JMhTZtqlL5rlrbVhxqPLuK5op7M5_JpdVRphwkOUYWzkUY06PbvgyOsg/s320/birds1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WSf2DRjDlMzJ6CF8UF_Sq_jaMSWrWciYwTMsWUtpFwPEKkNSRtwT07X6U_hagiMbMPhG-daXAvg0Ehsb_TUmCa6C5ftncmis1F_bRl6aV9jbF7Qpd0Mrxp2Z7dpVjFMEVW8CTQ/s2048/birds2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WSf2DRjDlMzJ6CF8UF_Sq_jaMSWrWciYwTMsWUtpFwPEKkNSRtwT07X6U_hagiMbMPhG-daXAvg0Ehsb_TUmCa6C5ftncmis1F_bRl6aV9jbF7Qpd0Mrxp2Z7dpVjFMEVW8CTQ/s320/birds2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPcg-VoxuFJJ-GckPW2uGdz1hyphenhyphenDfn_bT-XWlqziY8tzm1XQCH1bhoy3Jlw_B4tyleKz6SaW1rD-qWkX6oy42Q2l9OGy0iThsSQH-FZ3Tm_xRqoPI-Isgdc856hO6rQXbthA6A1tA/s2048/birds3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPcg-VoxuFJJ-GckPW2uGdz1hyphenhyphenDfn_bT-XWlqziY8tzm1XQCH1bhoy3Jlw_B4tyleKz6SaW1rD-qWkX6oy42Q2l9OGy0iThsSQH-FZ3Tm_xRqoPI-Isgdc856hO6rQXbthA6A1tA/s320/birds3.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUxkAOxp3DSt8ZKJFK9XWDNWl4_F0FvR2rbwoGgM1uFk35nT-FEkl7Wke4O6wRatlXL5nt_HBjkvTP7McKjNVXlNWT5k4VMQ8jJ1VEaBJfsIS3wamrYgTUooreZbTQINQIQ-f4A/s2048/birds4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUxkAOxp3DSt8ZKJFK9XWDNWl4_F0FvR2rbwoGgM1uFk35nT-FEkl7Wke4O6wRatlXL5nt_HBjkvTP7McKjNVXlNWT5k4VMQ8jJ1VEaBJfsIS3wamrYgTUooreZbTQINQIQ-f4A/s320/birds4.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Some birds are water-based, some reside on the trees, some in the bushes and some migratory visits from other places. The book gives details of the birds as well as the places in the course where they can be spotted and at what times. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">The 200 acre-course of 27 holes, with large and deep lakes, water falls, running streams, thousands of trees and shrubs, provide ample space for the birds to find food, drink honey from the flowers, lay eggs, bring up chicks and regenerate their species. The birds fill the course with their melodious mating calls, chirps, whistles and songs. During the rainy season, the peacocks dance around to attract the males. In summer they jump into the water to cool themselves and in winter take sun bath in the fairways. There are a few instances when the birds mistake the ball for egg and take them away..</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">The course is surrounded by a thousand acre Aravalli hills which provide extra space for the birds to fly out and in. The golf course with its green grass, colourful flowers and blue water bodies stands out like an oasis amidst the arid Aravalli forest of thorny bushes and stone-filled reddish soil.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">The photographer Andre Jeanpierre Fanthome has made the birds come alive with his powerful lense.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAUXsqELd1LmliOJubijhFcH5uOevDD4MH2QkMuDhd4Jt6UvXWIu8ZygrI_cYqBHaMiH_1a8pGWLHBSQb7mDwAtB8uLlcjkluHUgFB3jFTm5jgWFx76yLXmhhdY1fr_aBTs0wD_w/s2048/birds5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAUXsqELd1LmliOJubijhFcH5uOevDD4MH2QkMuDhd4Jt6UvXWIu8ZygrI_cYqBHaMiH_1a8pGWLHBSQb7mDwAtB8uLlcjkluHUgFB3jFTm5jgWFx76yLXmhhdY1fr_aBTs0wD_w/s320/birds5.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA05Xtlu1auXrxLbT9vi_BDdNyRV6UEdJVUFqV_z-3QGwi1u5lmfIkrp0Yy7msnq906oauEXGzWPWf-6JV6hXhEUG5E_qn0iw-5RE_mcf9H_cM7_BKUWHss5G_7gLQduH9OQqHzQ/s2048/birds6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA05Xtlu1auXrxLbT9vi_BDdNyRV6UEdJVUFqV_z-3QGwi1u5lmfIkrp0Yy7msnq906oauEXGzWPWf-6JV6hXhEUG5E_qn0iw-5RE_mcf9H_cM7_BKUWHss5G_7gLQduH9OQqHzQ/s320/birds6.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcyirm4r_V_e5MDTRgo3GbfdncNRvlYoYJT6gcPPUnk9nXbdsj2ciDhHWSSz9Lh1OtEOmfIog62kivSKYsesovfliCeGxLSmyo3hgdfZ19NLxtmH90RjjNztcBWXr-ShnnQnOZog/s2048/birds7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcyirm4r_V_e5MDTRgo3GbfdncNRvlYoYJT6gcPPUnk9nXbdsj2ciDhHWSSz9Lh1OtEOmfIog62kivSKYsesovfliCeGxLSmyo3hgdfZ19NLxtmH90RjjNztcBWXr-ShnnQnOZog/s320/birds7.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUWyJcDjUOVER8kbRvmAgKdFxOceglINHuDs4l1xmOLvN35XeVEv3Emm_ThlKOwtxf396-CM43a78vPZx5I_XvGBtIVHif0dweEXMx7jH4aCVCpM-_cYj_mD1G7zpsO2iSOIxBQ/s2048/birds8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUWyJcDjUOVER8kbRvmAgKdFxOceglINHuDs4l1xmOLvN35XeVEv3Emm_ThlKOwtxf396-CM43a78vPZx5I_XvGBtIVHif0dweEXMx7jH4aCVCpM-_cYj_mD1G7zpsO2iSOIxBQ/s320/birds8.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAErZM09rcGaGUSr3Tek8uB99esaxjn816GWmB9p1lEc5P6Mn51xZyAtbHh-GmSHzGN5cYb3G6UcXZ-s92K3vd4EdqKmYYgmIIYq-uPN_X8dEX7GCpVbcC1t5h-xh5OKo7ovG1g/s2048/birds9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAErZM09rcGaGUSr3Tek8uB99esaxjn816GWmB9p1lEc5P6Mn51xZyAtbHh-GmSHzGN5cYb3G6UcXZ-s92K3vd4EdqKmYYgmIIYq-uPN_X8dEX7GCpVbcC1t5h-xh5OKo7ovG1g/s320/birds9.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVolxk1MI5xbItHUb_b97uksveBeseRPs18O94-Tuj_3bP76MwmY6SqdwqZIA1V9JWI2Bv7pHLZjK6frPutyjmzMSNSOeVv791XTZnOkWJkZQNxa7Yc4HXXAfNnfhn3sL8lfxUmw/s2048/birds10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVolxk1MI5xbItHUb_b97uksveBeseRPs18O94-Tuj_3bP76MwmY6SqdwqZIA1V9JWI2Bv7pHLZjK6frPutyjmzMSNSOeVv791XTZnOkWJkZQNxa7Yc4HXXAfNnfhn3sL8lfxUmw/s320/birds10.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">The birds, players and balls have some things in common. The birds have colourful feathers while the players wear colorful costumes. The birds sing in joy and cry in pain and the players do the same depending upon the outcome of their shots. The birds lay their eggs under the bushes while the balls tend to go and hide in the bushes. The birds are attracted to the lakes for fish while the balls have an irresistible pull from the water. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">While some birds fly, others run on the surface or swim in the water. Some golfers fly the balls high, others cannot get them up while a few let the balls swim and sink..</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">When the players are lost in the bushes searching for their balls the crows find their sandwiches in the golf carts.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Players imitate the peacocks after making birdies while those who made double bogies try to hide like ostrich.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Golfers like the fairways, greens and holes. But the balls and birds like the bushes, trees and water..</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">The scenery of lake and the music of waterfalls and streams look so pleasing and soothing to the eyes ..which get wet when the ball falls into the water. The only consolation after losing the ball in water is when the opponents also do the same. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">They say that the level of water in the lakes keeps rising ..with the tears of players who lose balls....and the thousands of balls which keep filling up the bottom of the lakes..</span></div></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-64086971576172524542020-12-12T18:13:00.267-08:002020-12-12T21:03:40.736-08:00‘A Promised Land’- book of Barack Obama<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Barack Obama could have made a career as a successful writer, if he had chosen writing instead of politics. This is evident from his book “ A Promised Land” in which he has displayed his creative language skills, gift of storytelling, poetic sensibility, intellectual depth, and philosophical ruminations. Obama attributes his learning to a number of authors who had influenced his own writing and inspired him. He keeps the readers interested throughout the thousand pages of its length with his stories, analysis of events and cerebral reflections. He delves deep into the grand political issues while at the same time paying attention to small details and giving graphic description of people, places and situations through his observant eyes and rich imagination. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YWCREfnBS0VOz2Gm4e-TiWWQqehNfF97NXwuGB0mKlB9hV3Z_KYVXZ4-OFJgAa0fWFkpD1pcRPat_yPu84KRJddGsGtuR6XUQS75levVgSwYs0QWVortG2_7ns808euu6Qv6KA/s780/obama.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="780" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YWCREfnBS0VOz2Gm4e-TiWWQqehNfF97NXwuGB0mKlB9hV3Z_KYVXZ4-OFJgAa0fWFkpD1pcRPat_yPu84KRJddGsGtuR6XUQS75levVgSwYs0QWVortG2_7ns808euu6Qv6KA/s320/obama.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Obama has approached his life of achievements with a deeply introspective and detached manner in his signature style of self- criticism and self-deprecating humour. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">He is a rare politician who openly admits his weaknesses, limitations, dilemmas, gaffes, flaws and failures. He tries ‘constantly taking stock to make sure I wasn’t buying into the hype and remind myself of the distance between the airbrushed image and the flawed, often uncertain person I was’. He has not been carried away by the glamour and power of the POTUS ( President of the United States). He concludes, ‘for all its power and pomp, the presidency is still just a job and our federal government is a human enterprise like any other, and the men and women who work in the White House experience the same daily mix of satisfaction, disappointment, office friction, screw-ups, and small triumphs as the rest of their fellow citizens’. He confesses, ’The work, I loved. Even when it didn’t love me back’. For him, ‘each day had its share of aggravations, worries, and disappointments. I’d stew over mistakes I’d made and question strategies that hadn’t panned out. There were meetings I dreaded, ceremonies I found foolish, conversations I would have rather avoided’. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is an example of his self-criticsm, " </span><span style="font-family: arial;">By nature I’m a deliberate speaker, which, by the standards of presidential candidates, helped keep my gaffe quotient relatively low. But my care with words raised another issue on the campaign trail: I was just plain wordy, and that was a problem. When asked a question, I tended to offer circuitous and ponderous answers, my mind instinctively breaking up every issue into a pile of components and subcomponents. If every argument had two sides, I usually came up with four" e lede!” Axe (his advisor) would practically shout after listening to me drone on and on and on". He then started making his statements brief and go with the absorption capacity of the audience.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He has not filled the book with just about himself. He has given generous credit to numerous people who inspired him, supported and advised him at all levels including his butlers, security men, secretaries, drivers and gardeners with whom he had sincere conversations and shared experience and jokes. He shows genuine interest in the lives of others and expresses appreciation for other people’s achievements and sacrifices. <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Obama gives pen portraits of people describing their face, body and appearance with apt descriptions such as ‘tall and angular, with a jutting jaw, deep-set eyes’, ‘face of an Irish boxer’, ‘ long, hangdog face and throaty midwestern drawl’, ‘ruddy-faced with a whisk-broom mustache’, ‘voices soft as the patter of rain (Japanese emperor and his wife), ‘smile brushed with melancholy’, ‘raspy-voiced, lip-biting Arkansas charm (Bill Clinton), ‘the man was all muscle, sinew, and bone, with a long, angular face and a piercing, avian gaze’,’ broad-shouldered and sturdy with a Roman nose’<u1:p></u1:p>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is his take on some of the world leaders he had met:<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">British PM David Cameron – ‘possessed an impressive command of the issues, a facility with language, and the easy confidence of someone who’d never been pressed too hard by life. with a youthful appearance and a studied informality (at every international summit, the first thing he’d do was take off his jacket and loosen his tie)<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">German Chancellor Angela Merkel- ‘I found her steady, honest, intellectually rigorous, and instinctually kind. But she was also conservative by temperament, not to mention a savvy politician who knew her constituency’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">French President Nicholas Sarkozy- ‘was all emotional outbursts and overblown rhetoric. With his dark, expressive, vaguely Mediterranean features and small stature he looked like a figure out of a Toulouse-Lautrec painting’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sonia Gandhi – ‘striking woman in her sixties, dressed in a traditional sari, with dark, probing eyes and a quiet, regal presence’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rahul Gandhi – ‘has an unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">PM Manmohan Singh- ‘a gentle, soft-spoken, wise, thoughtful, and scrupulously honest and uncommonly decent man’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On the substantial political issues faced by him, he gives clinical and comprehensive analysis approaching the issues from all angles besides his own. He gives meticulous details of the issues, the various options to deal with them, the challenges in finding solutions and the compromises he was forced to make by the Republicans and other players. <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Obama reveals the powerlessness of POTUS on three issues: impunity of the Wall Street bankers, the all-powerful Israeli lobby and the multi- billion dollar military-industrial complex. <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He is of the view that ‘Wall Street really did increasingly function like a trillion-dollar casino, its outsized profits and compensation packages overly dependent on ever-greater leverage and speculation. Its obsession with quarterly earnings had warped corporate decision-making and encouraged short-term thinking. Untethered to place, indifferent to the impact of globalization on particular workers and communities, the financial markets had helped accelerate the offshoring of jobs and the concentration of wealth in a handful of cities and economic sectors, leaving huge swaths of the country.’ He was outraged when the AIG executives pocketed 170 million dollars of bonus after the company was saved from collapse by the 70 billion dollar rescue by the Treasury department with tax payers’ money. These were the same executives who had caused the subprime lending crisis with their reckless greed. The regulatory system and legislation was gamed by the Republican leaders and lobby to ensure impunity for the fat cat bankers. Obama expresses his anguish saying, “ many of the people most culpable for the nation’s economic woes remained fabulously wealthy and had avoided prosecution mainly because the laws as written deemed epic recklessness and dishonesty in the boardroom or on the trading floor less blameworthy than the actions of a teenage shoplifter”. The all-powerful POTUS could not touch them except expressing his anger in private.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He was equally helpless with the immunity enjoyed by Israel which got away with inhuman atrocities against the Palestines because of the unconditional solid support by the US under the power of the Jewish lobby. The Israeli PM Netanyahu simply ignored Obama and went over his head to the Congress to get whatever he wanted. With his offensive tactics, he put Obama on the defensive and made POTUS powerless.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The generals and the arms manufacturers pushed for more wars and intensification of the ongoing wars for billions of dollars of profit and trillion dollar business. The military-industrial complex did not care for the peaceful and non-violent diplomatic methods preferred by Obama. This reminds me of the interview in which the Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma was asked about for his opinion on the loss of US jobs to China. He said, “ The US had spent around two trillion dollars in the destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, If the money was used for constructive domestic development, the US would not have had any unemployment problem”. Obama reflects, “ I found myself imagining what America might look like if we could rally the country so that our government brought the same level of expertise and determination to educating our children or housing the homeless as it had to getting bin Laden; if we could apply the same persistence and resources to reducing poverty or curbing greenhouse gases or making sure every family had access to decent day care”. He admits, “we meddled in the affairs of other countries, sometimes with disastrous results; we had invaded Iraq, broken that country, helped spawn an even more virulent branch of al-Qaeda”.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Since the right wing Republicans constantly attacked and teased Obama as incapable and unsuitable for being a commander in chief, Obama had to prove to them that he could also do what Bush did. This explains Obama’s regime change war in Libya and killing of Qaddafi as well as the raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Obama has handled the ‘black man issue’ upfront in some places and subtly and discretely in other contexts. He preferred to send his vice president Joe Biden to negotiate with the Republican leader Mitch McConnel because of his ‘awareness that in McConnell’s mind, negotiations with the vice president didn’t inflame the Republican base in quite the same way that any appearance of cooperating with (Black, Muslim socialist) Obama was bound to do’. Obama has analysed and come out with the reasons for the backlash in the ugly form of Trump and right wing extremism. According to hi, the anti-intellectual and anti-reason movement started with Sarah Paulin when she campaigned as vice presidential candidate along with John MacCain. Unable to match the intellectual discourses of Obama, she took to trivializing and trashing Obama’s wisdom and erudition. Trump took it from where Sarah Paulin left and made a career out of attacking the black man. Obama says, “ antipathy had migrated from the fringe of GOP politics to the center—an emotional, almost visceral, reaction to my presidency, distinct from any differences in policy or ideology. It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted. Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety”. Obama clarifies, ‘I recognize that there are those who believe that it’s time to discard the myth—that an examination of America’s past and an even cursory glance at today’s headlines show that this nation’s ideals have always been secondary to conquest and subjugation, a racial caste system and rapacious capitalism, and that to pretend otherwise is to be complicit in a game that was rigged from the start’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The book ends with the chapter on the daring raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. I look forward to reading the second volume of the memoir Obama is working on. <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have read and reviewed his earlier books which were also equally inspiring:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Audacity of Hope</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2009/02/audacity-of-hope-book-by-barak-obama.html">https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2009/02/audacity-of-hope-book-by-barak-obama.html</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dreams from my father</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2009/03/dreams-from-my-father-obama.html">https://floatingweed.blogspot.com/2009/03/dreams-from-my-father-obama.html</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He wrote those two before he became President. But in this book he wanted to offer readers a sense of what it’s like to be the president of the United States. He has done it candidly and lucidly. Still I like better the part of his story before he became president. His narration of his emotions and feelings in chasing his dream and the struggle he went through are more fascinating and poignant than his writings on his presidential years. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the last four years, President Trump has made US as a laughing stock and insulted the intelligence of people with his shameless, wicked, indecent, racist and juvenile statements and actions. It comes as a relief and a source of confidence and optimism that the same US which disgraced itself by voting for Trump, had elected and reelected a black man with a muslim name. Obama's success becomes even more admirable and amazing after seeing the disastrous presidency of Trump who had unearthed the ugliness from under the ground.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Obama could not have achieved the success alone by himself. He could have become a successful lawyer or writer with his talents and skills. But to become the President, he had to move the whole country, which has a built-in system to discriminate the blacks even from voting, let alone get voted. He had to get past the torturous systems of primaries, no-holds barred debates, dirty tricks of the opponents, scrutiny of the media and above all the formidable candidature of Hillary Clinton. Obama was supported, helped and guided through the process by thousands of Americans who believed in him and worked hard much before he became famous. He also got the votes of many Republican states and whites. Most importantly, credit is due to the old rural white folks of Iowa who elected him in the very first primary giving him the much needed critical moral boost in the beginning of the game. This is why Obama calls </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the country as “A promised Land”.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p></u1:p></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-4512520772371449542020-11-09T05:02:00.000-08:002020-11-09T05:02:04.220-08:00 Thirukkural and the ‘India Way’ of diplomacy<div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;"><div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b><b> Thirukkural and the ‘India Way’ of diplomacy</b></span></p></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> </b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">India, as a civilizational power coming back on the international stage, must draw inspiration from its own ethos and epics and express itself in a distinct ‘India Way’, says Jaishankar in his book “ The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World”. He has made this clear in the preface itself with a couplet from Thiruvalluvar, the ancient Tamil poet. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">‘Wisdom is to live in tune with the mode of the changing world’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In Tamil it reads as,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">எவ்வ</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">துறைவது</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">உலகம்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">உலகத்தோடு</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">அவ்வ</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">துறைவ</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">தறிவு”</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From Thirukkural, Jaishankar goes on to Mahabharatha which holds lessons to deal with the complexities of the uncertain world. The dilemmas of statecraft permeate the story, among them taking risks, placing trust, and making sacrifices. It gives the most vivid distillation of Indian thoughts on statecraft with a graphic account of real-life situations and their inherent choices. The courage required to implement policy is, perhaps, its most famous section – the Bhagavad Gita in which Krishna provides strategic guidance, diplomatic energy and tactical wisdom in navigating challenges. Focusing on the importance of the sense of duty and the sanctity of obligations, it is also a description of human frailties. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UKKv2qPf9WtxViBaI4b_fr-skCCe00sS4bh9dFG5fSRIVyPRHFKnFOnLB9joYvGBpCjHQawa7V3RPFrfa7zcRPC9O_GR37ESo79afr-2zqjEq-VY4FY-6nOw3WXZgZd7E9qcGw/s330/jaishankar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UKKv2qPf9WtxViBaI4b_fr-skCCe00sS4bh9dFG5fSRIVyPRHFKnFOnLB9joYvGBpCjHQawa7V3RPFrfa7zcRPC9O_GR37ESo79afr-2zqjEq-VY4FY-6nOw3WXZgZd7E9qcGw/s320/jaishankar.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar emphasizes that brand differentiation is especially important for a rising and aspirational power. He calls for introduction of our own diplomatic terms into the discourse as it is intrinsic to the process of India’s international emergence. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He sums up the foreign policy strategy in one sentence, “India should engage the US, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring back Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The India Way includes among other things:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- pursuit of multiple approaches and multiple alliances and partnership with global interests<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- Keep up the many balls up in the air and reconcile commitments to multiple partners with skill. There will be convergence with many but congruence with none. In this world of all against all, India’s goal should be to move closer towards the strategic sweet spot. India must reach out in as many directions as possible and maximize its gains in the new world matrix of many sides, many players and many games.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- respond with engagement than by distancing; deal with contesting parties at the same time with optimal results; engage a broader set of partners more creatively; forge convergences and manage divergences taking advantage of the opening of a world of multiple choices at different levels; assess the disruptions underway and the trends that accelerate, mitigate or counter new directions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">-make many friends, few foes, great goodwill and more influence with a stronger competitive spirit and a sharper strategic sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- Constant advancement of goals and interests, using all pathways that the world has to offer. And since that often means plunging into the unknown, it requires both judgement and courage. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- take on global responsibilities and act as a constructive player <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">- move over from the Delhi Dogmas of passivity and pessimism stuck in the past history and dilemmas of defensive and argumentative mindset.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With his experience as Ambassador to China, he says that India should learn from the rise of China which should sharpen India’s competitive instincts. China has risen as a formidable global power drawing on its own cultural attributes. China Way has elevated dissimulation to the highest level of statecraft. This is exemplified by popular aphorisms such as, ‘Deceiving the heavens to cross the ocean’ or ‘making a sound in the East to then strike West’ or ‘decking trees with false blossoms’. Unlike in India, there is neither guilt nor doubt in dissembling in the Chinese mind. In fact, it is glorified as an art. Its virtues are repeatedly lauded in the Three Kingdoms epic, where many of the decisive encounters are won by trickery rather than by force. Using the above strategy China has been winning without fighting, while the US is stuck in fighting without winning in recent years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Some of his prescriptions for specific foreign policy issues:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">China: In dealing with China’s might, India should use “ Nimzo-Indian Defence”, moving from the past strategic posture similar to the “ Indian Defence” in chess. The border and the future of ties cannot be separated. India should not give free pass to China to make use of the open Indian market while keeping its own market protected. One of the ways to deal with China is try to create multipolar Asia with a stable balance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">US: The playbook of dealing with US needs rewriting in view of the new priorities and problems of US and its growing tensions with China. India has to maintain a narrative of its value in the US and customize it for the President of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Pakistan: There is no one-time fix. A mix of fortitude, creativity and perseverance with prompt Uri and Balakot responses to counter mischiefs. It is important to note the minimal space Jaishankar has devoted for Pakistan which has become a disproportionate morbid obsession for the Indian media and TV talking heads. India needs to focus on the larger picture without being distracted too much by the Pakistani nuisance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Policy towards neighbours: simple answer in two words.. Generosity and firmness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Non-alignment: it suited India in the days when the country was weaker and was caught in the cold war between the two potent super powers. There was comfort in group mentality and non-involvement. But multi-alignment is the new India Way. It is more energetic and participative. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Policy towards the West: India has both the ability to work confidently with the West when required and differ with it when its interests so demand. As India goes up in the international order, it will advance its own narratives, and, on occasion, question Western ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar has avoided a favourite and passionate foreign policy subject of many Indians: permanent membership of United Nations Security Council. Some in India get carried away with the outrage at the injustice of keeping India outside this organ of power. Even the Ministry of External Affairs have wasted energy on this issue by sending special envoys to the capitals of Belize and Haiti seeking their support. Big powers such as France and UK take India for a ride promising support and getting return favours, sure that that the day of reckoning is very very far. India should keep strengthening itself and wait for the day of disruption of the world order when it should be ready to kick open the doors of UNSC. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the past, India’s foreign policy has made some mistakes or missed opportunities due to passivity, delays and dilemmas in decision making. Jaishankar draws attention to Satyajit Ray’s movie “Shatranj ke kilari” (chess player) in which two Indian nawabs are engrossed in a chess game while the British are taking over their Awadh kingdom. The new India has to be alert to the changes in global politics and be prepared to make its own moves promptly as a proactive player. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar ends the book with a chapter on the Chinese-origin corona virus which has made the world even more uncertain than the disruption caused by China’s rise in the world. In its systemic impact, the corona virus may be the most consequential global happening after 1945. It adds to global turbulence by encouraging policy departures across geographies. This opens up opportunities for India whose value to the world will probably increase even further after the virus. He concludes the book with an optimistic and diplomatic message, “Let us take it as a sign of the (corona virus) times that the world has discovered the virtue of Namaste, the India Way of greeting with folded hands”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The India Way is a timely message to the new India which is becoming stronger and is seeking its due place in the world. The book is not a mere academic analysis or erudite exercise. It is the call of a serving External Affairs Minister with experience of four decades of distinguished career as a diplomat. He has a unique opportunity to practice what he has preached in his book. He is lucky as a policy maker to have the confidence of a politician as prime minister who shares his vision for India’s future in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar argues that as India rises in the world order, it should not only visualize its interests with greater clarity but also communicate them effectively. That’s what he has done in the book eloquently and authoritatively. The book will be read carefully by the foreign ministries and think tanks around the world. He has not shied away from commenting on sensitive topics such as the Trump phenomenon, American parsimony or the Chinese strategic deception. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar is the first Tamil to become External Affairs Minister of India. He had made use of his mother tongue in interactions with the Tamil Tigers when he was posted in Sri Lanka during the crucial period of IPKF operations. His father K Subramanyam, from Tiruchirappalli, served as IAS officer in the Tamil Nadu cadre. After shifting to the Central government in Delhi, he became the leading defence and security expert and was known <span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">as the doyen of India's strategic affairs community. </span>Jaishankar’s son Dhruva is also a brilliant expert on international affairs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jaishankar’s bold, dispassionate, candid and clear articulation fits the description of diplomacy by Thiruvalluvar in his poem <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">கற்றுக்கண்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">அஞ்சான்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">செலச்சொல்லிக்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">காலத்தால்</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">தக்கது</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">அறிவதாம்</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">தூது</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc;">. (Diplomacy is articulation according to the need of the time with profound knowledge </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #000033;">and without fear)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></p></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-37478193622305640922020-08-27T20:17:00.357-07:002020-08-28T01:33:04.879-07:00 The toss of a lemon – novel by Padma Viswanathan<p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the story of Sivakami, a rural and traditional Tamil Brahmin and her extended family through several generations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She gets married at the age of 10 and gives birth to a son Vairam and daughter Thangam. A the time of her delivery, the midwife tosses a lemon, a practice done to announce the birth of child to the husband and other males waiting outside the room. The men note the exact timing of toss of the lemon and and give it to the astrologer for writing the horoscope of the child.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wZGbP6mFP9OJwIIQBGEyGF_zt_GBiLAvTx-OVVpy_T7cBRO1zpRAiTxNR0tXA3kD42uLANst5viNAJGBjWqJTCLMW6O1K03mezm-A_UjaamYPVW2g5cGWSlfbkh4cT-8ZyHXPw/s450/lemon.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wZGbP6mFP9OJwIIQBGEyGF_zt_GBiLAvTx-OVVpy_T7cBRO1zpRAiTxNR0tXA3kD42uLANst5viNAJGBjWqJTCLMW6O1K03mezm-A_UjaamYPVW2g5cGWSlfbkh4cT-8ZyHXPw/s0/lemon.jpeg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sivakami starts her life in Samanthibakkam village where she is born and spends the rest of her life after marriage in Cholapatti, the village of her husband. Cholapatti is twenty minutes by bullock cart from Kulithalai, the nearest town from which one can take the train to Trichy, the district headquarters.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sivakami becomes a widow at eighteen with two kids when her astrologer-husband dies as predicted in the horoscope. She brings up the children and manages the agricultural lands of her husband with the help of a lower caste supervisor Muchami. She marries off her daughter Thangam, also at an early age, to an adventurous boy Goli who becomes a Revenue Inspector and does some business ventures on the side. Her son Vairam gets college education in St Joseph College, Trichy and eventually settles down in Chennai. Goli has an affair with a devdasi whose daughter becomes a film actress at the end.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sivakami lives the austere life of a widow wearing a white saree without blouse, as prescribed by the tradition. She eats food prepared only by herself. She keeps herself generally invisible and untouchable. She is not allowed to wear silk sarees and jewellery. She is prohibited to put vermillion dot on the forehead or to have flowers on the hair. She gets her head shaven periodically by a low cast barber before day light. She takes bath in the river in pre-dawn darkness and returns before light so as to spare her neighbours the sight of a widow, a sign of bad omen. She is not allowed to be present in auspicious ceremonies.<u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The author brings out the orthodox Tamil Brahmin rituals and rural scenes vividly. There are pallanguzhi games, four course meals on banana leaf, bullock cart journeys, bathing in Kavery river, acute but unspoken tensions and politics within joint families, servants for domestic help and for farm work, poonul ceremonies, Golu (exihibtion of dolls) during Navaratri festival, cotton dhotis for men, silk sarees for women, silk paavaadais for girls and kudumis (tufts) for boys. There are strict practices of purification through bathing and other rituals after contacts with lower castes. There are the typical TamBrahm expressions in Sanskritised Tamil. Some young Brahmins including Vairam rebel against Brahminical exclusiveness and start mixing with non-Brahmins. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">While the story is mostly about the life and struggles of Brahmins, the author gives slight touches of the external world. She gives glimpses of Dravidian movement against Brahmin domination and the national Independence movement for freedom from the British rule. There are debates about the larger social issues of superstitions, prejudice and blind adherence to unjust and irrational traditions. The non-Brahmins celebrate Ravana as the hero to spite and ridicule Rama worshipped by Brahmins.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brahmins from the village migrate to the cities and to the west, leaving village agraharams (Brahmin neighbourhood) empty and deserted. There are several such ghost village Agraharams around my own village Alangudi Mahajanam, which is sixty km from Kulithalai town, going along the route of Kaveri river. A few old Brahmins still move around like ghosts in desolate streets with haunted houses. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><u1:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></u1:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The only problem with the novel is that it is too long, running into more than six hundred pages. In the first two hundred pages, Padma builds the story and raises the expectations of the readers. But thereafter she keeps repeating details of marriages, pregnancies, births, deaths and ceremonies one after another without any exciting action, suspense or drama. One gets lost in so many names and details of their routine activities. The story flows placidly and monotonously like the Kaveri river in Trichy area. It looks like the way in which old grandmothers weave and repeat stories putting their grand children to sleep. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The long story of Sivakami reminds me of ‘Sivakamiyin Sabatham’, the famous epic novel of Kalki which is longer. But Kalki keeps the readers anticipating with excitement before each chapter till the end. But one should give allowance to the fact that this is the first novel of Padma. Her second novel “The ever after of Ashwin Rao” is shorter and more gripping till the end. She takes control of the story herself with her own experience, creativity and imagination. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With this novel, Padma has followed admirably in the footsteps of R K Narayan in opening up South Indian society to the international readers in the English language. Narayan did it during the colonial times with the help of his literary contacts such as Graham Green who introduced him to publishers in London. But Padma has struck it competitively on her own in US as any other American writer. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">It is admirable that Padma's novel has got positive critical reviews from mainstream American media and literary circles. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The Americans and westerners are struck by the success stories of South Indians such as Sunder Pichai and Satya Nadella in Silicon Valley. The nomination of Kamala Harris, born to a Tamil Brahmin mother (Shyamala Gopalan), as a Vice presidential candidate in this year's election will add to the interest in South Indian culture. She said, "</span><span color="" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My mother instilled in my sister, Maya, and me the values that would chart the course of our lives</span></span><span color="" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Droid Serif", serif; font-size: 18px;">.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="" style="background-color: white;"> She</span><span color=""> </span></span><span color="" style="font-family: arial;">taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning". This is the philosophy of </span><span color="" style="font-family: arial;">Sivakami, the main character in the novel.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Padma has used the same simple and direct story telling method of Narayan. There are no complicated expressions, mysterious meanderings or Freudian analysis. The story moves directly and chronologically with clear descriptions of characters, places and events. The stories of both Padma and Narayan are authentic portrayals of the traditional South Indian society. Both have succeeded in making effective use of the English language to bring the culture and people alive and natural.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The only difference is that Narayan had lived all his life among his Malgudian characters, while Padma’s experience is second-hand. She was born and brought up in Canada. So she has no direct personal experience of what happens in the story. Her Tamil parents had emigrated to Canada from Trichy. She now lives in Arkansas working as a professor of literature and creative writing. Padma says that the novel is based on the stories she had heard from her own grand mother as well as from her relatives. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Padma has gone beyond the Tamil and English speaking worlds. She has translated a Brazilian novel " Sao Bernardo" into English. The Portuguese used in Sao Bernardo is provincial from the rural northern interior part of Brazil and spoken hundred years back. Padma has done a remarkable job of bringing the Brazilian characters alive with her expert translation skills.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In this novel 'Toss of a lemon', Padma has sprinkled a lot of typical Tamil expressions and words such as kanna (darling for boy), puja (worship ceremony), jimikki (earrings), kolam (design of connecting dots through lines with rice flour in the front of the house), pazhaya sadam (rice fermented with water overnight), siddhas ( itinerant ascetics), tiffin, iddli and dosa, sambar and rasam , pacchadi (yogurt and cucumber), veeboothi (sacred white ash applied in forehead), chithi (aunt) and Aiyo (expression of shock, surprise or pity).<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Kamala Harris</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> used the Tamil word "Chithi" (aunt) in her address while accepting the nomination as Vice Presidential candidate. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The words ‘Aiyo’ and ‘Aiaiyo’ have recently got included in the Oxford Dictionary. My golf buddies in Delhi shout ‘Aiyo’ when I miss long putts and scream ‘Aiaiyo’ when I mess up short ones.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Great Tamil poet Bharathiar, who wrote</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">தேமதுரத் தமிழோசை உலகமெலாம்</span></p><span face="" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">பரவும் வகை செய்தல் வேண்டும"</span><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><div><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(the sweet melody of Tamil should be spread around the world), should be smiling from the heaven and cheering for Kamala and Padma....</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u1:p> </u1:p></span></p></div>viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-19685955299748409782020-08-05T01:37:00.003-07:002020-08-05T01:40:45.512-07:00The ever after of Ashwin Rao – novel by Padma Viswanathan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I read this novel after having liked Padma Viswanathan’s translation of a Brazilian novel “Sao Bernardo”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The ever after of Ashwin Rao” is about the familiar issues of cultural challenges and adjustment of Indians in the west pulled by their old Indian roots and pushed by the western culture. Ashwin Rao, the psychiatrist, goes to Canada to interview the families of the victims of the Air India crash from the bombs placed in the aircraft by Sikh extremists. Ashwin, who had lived in Canada earlier, spends most of his time with the Tamil Brahmin family of Prof Sethuraman who help another professor Venkat who lost his son and wife in the crash. In facing the tragedy, both the professors renew and intensify their faith in Shivasakthi a guru in India. The children of Sethuraman, born in Canada, have adopted seamlessly to the Canadian way of life while respecting the Indian mindset and traditions of their parents. But Venkat drives his wife and son crazy with his strict and stubborn patriarchal domination and control. Ashwin himself continues as a bachelor unable to decide and commit to the love offered by a Canadian woman and later the interest shown by an Indian widow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Padma has connected the story to the Golden temple incident and the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi as the events which hurt Sikh sentiments, build up extremism and the bombing of the plane. Padma’s detached points of view on these tragic political events of India give a fresh outsider’s perspective different from the standard patriotic Indian narrative and the criticism of foreigners. Padma has not dared to dive deep into the Indian socio-political issues, given her own limited understanding. She has, however, dug up deep into Canadian issues such as racial discrimination and indifference to the bombing. Her comments on Indo-Canadian duality and dilemmas are authoritative and profound. She is even more authentic in the portrayal of the spiritual Tamil Brahmin characters confronted by Canadian materialism. She has used many typical Tamil Brahmin expressions to give authenticity to her characters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Padma’s talents as a creative writer and imaginative story teller come out clearly in this interesting and enjoyable novel. </span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-27417832909128682462020-06-27T20:26:00.001-07:002020-06-27T23:16:38.429-07:00“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, FDR in the movie “Warm Springs”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, the famous quote of Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) resonated with me in these days of fear of Corona infection. While researching on this, I came across the film “Warm Springs” which is about FDR’s paralytic stroke and how he overcame the disability and fear and became one of the greatest Presidents of the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The quote about fear was not just a rhetoric of FDR’s inaugural address, written by clever speech writers. It came from the bottom of the heart of FDR himself based on his own personal fears after he was disabled by paralysis in August 1921. During his summer stay in the family vacation home at Campobello Island in Canada, he went for a swim in the lake. When he came back, he had pain in the legs and hips. He went to bed. But he could not get up or stand or walk thereafter. The doctor diagnosed it as Infantile polio which was prevalent at that time among children but hit the adults also rarely. He was paralysed from waist down and <u1:p></u1:p>lost the use of his legs. He needed help to dress, undress and to use the toilet and bathroom. He was devastated and devoured by dark fears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At that time, he was a strong and healthy 38-year old ambitious man with a promising future ahead. He used to play polo, golf and tennis. He enjoyed shooting, sailing and rowing. He had studied at Harvard and Columbia universities and became an Assistant Secretary of Navy in the Federal government. He had attended the inauguration of his uncle Theodore Roosevelt as President. FDR was a rising star and had dreams of a promising future until the tragedy struck in 1921.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Besides suffering from severe pain, FDR felt anger and shame. He felt angry when other people sympathized and pitied. He was ashamed since he was considered as a “cripple” a stigma at that time. So he left his family and went away to Florida and spent time in his house boat. There he heard of the “ warm springs” a resort in Georgia which had thermal springs which helped with hydrotherapy. But when he went there, he was even more angry. The sight of other crippled people around him made him disgusted. The resort was poorly maintained and restricted the use by the cripples only during off season. The healthy rich people who used the thermal resort during the season did not like the presence of the cripples. When FDR insisted for using the springs during the season, he was given separate timings and he had to use separate room for dining since the healthy guests did not like to see the cripples in the main dining room. FDR felt humiliated.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was at this time that a physiotherapist arrives to the rescue of FDR. She helps him with exercises and more importantly changes his mindset. She helps him to get out of his denial mode and mental paralysis. She makes him accept and live with the reality. She makes him feel comfortable with his own body besides feeling at home in the crowd of other disabled people. It was only then that he starts a new life. He starts joining the group activities and begins to laugh and enjoy their company. He invests his own money and buys up the resort and improves the facilities. Even after he left the resort, it continued as a reputed rehabilitation centre in the country. In fact, his life insurance money after his death was pledged to the trust which ran the centre.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Born in a wealthy aristocratic family, FDR had lived a privileged life. It was only after his own physical suffering and seeing the misery of other fellow polio victims that FDR discovered true compassion and genuine empathy for the disadvantaged. These new virtues of FDR motivated him even more for his New Deal policies to make life better for those unemployed and impoverished by the Great Depression.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When he was fighting the pain with shame and anger, the last thing on his mind was politics. He just wanted to get away from every one and wanted to live privately. Even his possessive mother favoured his retirement from public life. But his friend and political advisor Louis Howe kept insisting for FDR’s return to politics. Eleanor, his wife, also supported it so that he could divert his mind from his private suffering. So reluctantly, FDR agreed to go back to New York and revive his political career. He won the election to be the governor of New York state in 1928. He then contested and won four consecutive elections to Presidency, a record in the electoral history of the country. He lead US at the most challenging and traumatic times of the Great Depression and the second World War from 1933 to 1945.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">FDR’s handicap was kept as a kind of secret from the public. He did not want the people to see his disabled condition and ensured that he was never seen using his wheel chair in public. His public appearances were carefully choreographed to hide the secret of his handicap. He would walk a few steps on the stage with the help of metal braces from hip to foot on both sides and holding on to clutches or cane. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons.<u1:p></u1:p> The press and photographers also quietly collaborated and never talked about his handicap or published photos of him in wheel chair. Thank God, there was no Trump or Fox news at that time. The only time he moved around in wheel chair publicly was when he visited the hospital with wounded and amputated soldiers. He joked with them that he did not need legs to become President.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Throughout his public life after 1921, he had the constant fear that he might fall while trying to walk with the help of braces. He feared that his secret of disability might be exposed and political career finished. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was another secret too. Before the paralysis, FDR had fallen in love with his wife’s social secretary Lucy Mercer. When his wife Eleanor found out and confronted him, he wanted divorce. They had five children at that time. But the strong-willed and widowed mother of FDR ruled out divorce as a stigma for the family. She threatened to cut off FDR’s inheritance. So he agreed to continue with the marriage and stop seeing Lucy. This happened just before the paralytic attack. But many years later, FDR started seeing Lucy again secretly. In fact, she was with him when he died in 1945 at a southern resort, while his wife was in Washington DC. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The old fox had even more secrets. He had enjoyed the company of many young women and had secret affairs, even as President. Perhaps, the handsome and virile FDR felt the need to prove himself even more after the disability. What is remarkable is that his children knew these escapades and were even accomplices to keep the old man happy. Eleanor came to know about these after FDR’s death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Both in public and private lives, FRD kept his sufferings to himself fiercely. He did not want to share his feelings of fear, pain and grief. He suffered silently and stoically. He was lonely and tried to avoid as much as possible help from others. He always pushed his boundaries of disability, bearing pain and taking risks.This made him stronger mentally. <u1:p></u1:p>He went beyond concealing his suffering. He went out of his way to look cheerful, charming, lively, playful and humorous in public. These relentless efforts for external appearances became ingrained as habits gradually and became mark of his personality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The successful way in which FDR managed to overcome his disability, pain and fears gave him extra self-confidence when he competed with his opponents in politics. This is the secret of his extraordinary success to have been elected as four-term president, a record in American history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The poignant and powerful movie of FDR’s story in “ Warm Springs” is inspiring to stay positive and optimistic at this unprecedented testing and distressing time of Corona virus which has paralysed people mentally imposing the disability and handicap of social distancing. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-14637729222403453602020-05-14T20:01:00.001-07:002020-05-14T20:01:34.995-07:00Confession on my birthday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thank all the friends who greeted me on 10 May with birthday wishes. But I have a confession. 10 May is not my date of birth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beg your pardon. I don’t know my actual date of birth. My mother, who is illiterate, does not know. My semi literate late father knew the cards in rummy which caused his loss but did not care to record my date of birth. No one knows. No birth certificate from hospital. I was born at home in the village.</span></div>
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So how did I get the date of birth? It was given arbitrarily by the village (Raramuthiraikottai) school teacher when I got admitted in the first grade.</div>
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My case was not unique. Most of my classmates were also given date of birth by the teacher.</div>
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Every year the teacher will round up the village kids around the age of five and arrange an admission ceremony on the day of Saraswati Pooja, a festival celebrated for Saraswati, the goddess of learning.</div>
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Our elementary school of about thirty students had two teachers. Our school was a single room thatched hut where all the students from class 1 to 5 sat in the same room on the floor. The classes were separated into different corners or wall sides. Everyone could hear and see what is happening in the other four classes.</div>
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None of us celebrated birthdays in the class or school or street. It was unheard of among my village friends. We never got new dress for birthdays. We had to wait for Diwali festival, when everyone got new dress.</div>
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We never sang “happy birthday to you” in the village. We learnt ABCD English in the fifth grade.</div>
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After class five, some of my friends and me joined the Higher Elementary School (grade six to eight) in the neighbouring bigger village Mariammankovil, about four kms from ours. The school got upgraded to High School when we passed out from eighth standard. So we continued for three more years and finished eleventh grade. We never had any birthday parties in the school.</div>
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Then I moved to Pushpam college in Poondi, four kms walk from my village. Even my college friends never had any birthday parties. Funny eh?</div>
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I did not celebrate on 10 May 2020. I have never celebrated in the last 67 years. I don’t feel like it. I feel shy.</div>
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I do not get a sense of joy or a celebratory feeling with the song in English “Happy birthday to you”. It feels unnatural. In Tamil culture, many things are unsaid; wishes unexpressed; greetings undeclared. But unstated feelings are understood and implicit.</div>
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I pretend to be modern, cosmopolitan and 'passionate about Latin America' but deep inside, I am still the same boy from the village, filled with insecurity, ignorance, uncertainty and the fear that some day I will be exposed for my incorrect date of birth or that others will find out my about my true self. The truth is..I don't know my date of birth nor my true self... and I ask myself as in the song of Bhaagapirivinai film of 1959,<br />“ ஏன் பிறந்தாய் மகனே…..ஏன் பிறந்தாயோ “ ( why were you born son.. why were you born )</div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-68483994097910100112020-05-06T21:24:00.000-07:002020-05-07T06:49:29.412-07:00For whom the bell tolls- novel by Ernest Hemingway<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I just finished this novel about the Spanish civil war. Hemingway has brought out the horrors of war in which peasants and international volunteers participate, besides the professional soldiers. A number of international volunteers join on the side of the republicans to fight against General Franco’s Fascism. Some of the volunteers are intellectuals and poets motivated by lofty ideals of freedom and democracy; Some are hardcore communists who are loyal to Soviet Union and speak the language of Comintern; and then there are peasants who do not understand any of the ideals for which the two sides are fighting. Who they support is decided by the simple need for survival. Some of them fight for the spoils. They are quick to strip the dead enemy’s clothes, boots and firearms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the villages, families settle old scores using the opportunity of the war. Since they do not have proper fire arms, they use sticks and stones. There is one gruesome scene in which the villagers line up the landlords and shop owners, beat them with clubs and throw the half dead victims over a cliff. Before the execution, the victims are allowed to pray in the local church. They emerge from the church door one and pass between the two rows of the drunken peasants who tease and taunt the victims before hitting them to kill. It is said that this is based on true stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The hero of the novel, Robert Jordan, is a professor of Spanish in a US university. He is one of those fired by idealism to join the Republican side. He develops a brotherhood with the others who are engaged in the Republican cause. Tasked with the job of blowing up a bridge, he goes about the job dispassionately and single mindedly. He knows that death could await him the next day but the danger does not make him flinch from the mission. While staying with the villagers who provide logistical support, he falls in love with Maria, an innocent young girl. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hemingway has imbued the novel with the authentic Spanish characters who are peasants, bullfighters, gypsies, and guerilla fighters. He has used typical Spanish phrases and dialogues and given a flavor of the local culture. There are two characters who make a strong impression. One is Maria, the simple and uneducated rural girl who falls in love with Jordan. Orphaned and traumatized by the brutal killing of her parents by the Fascists, she is helpless and hopeless. She presents herself to Jordan with unconditional love, complete faith, obedience and surrender. She cannot even express her love and feelings, since she does not have the vocabulary. She does not even know how to kiss. She wants to be a wife but does not know all the duties of a wife. The love is just plain, pure and primal. There is no romance or flowers or poems. There is no talk of immortal love or 'I can't live without you' dialogue. Just a few glances, gestures and getting the bodies together in the sleeping bag in the night. The second character is Pilar, the older woman who sees through the men, with her long and rough experience. She speaks the language of survival, courage and pragmatism, going beyond emotions and sentiments. But she has an inner tenderness with which she takes care of Maria like a mother and encourages Jordan's love for Maria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hemingway portrays vividly the emotions running inside a bullfighter while facing the bull, the time before entering the ring and the feelings afterwards. A fearless hero in front of the charging bull is so afraid of bulls outside the ring. He cannot even bear to see the image of bulls in photos and decorations. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hemingway wrote this novel not just on the basis of a writer’s imagination but based on his actual experience in the battlefield. This is evident in the intensity of play of emotions and the extensive minute details of the firearms. He was in the front lines as a war correspondent with sympathy and solidarity for the cause of the Republicans. It was while covering this war that he fell in love with Martha Gellhorn, another veteran American war correspondent and writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only problem with the novel is that it is too long. It does not have a gripping story to sustain the length. I have read many longer novels and wished that they would not end. Not this one. One gets lost in the unending dialogues between the peasant characters and with the protagonist. Some of these conversations are meandering, meaningless and repetitive. One feels trapped too long in the forests of the Sierra de Guadarrama hills where the protagonist is staying to carry out his job of blowing up the bridge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One small disappointment for me. I expected to see in the novel some Spanish poems and literary references. The Spanish civil was called as a "poets' war" since so many poets and writers from Spain and around the world participated on the Republican side and even recited poems in the front lines. Octavio Paz, Cesar Vallejo and Pablo Neruda from Latin America were among the famous poets who took part in the war against Fascism. The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was murdered by the fascists. The Spanish poetry of this period is so intense with the sufferings from the war. But Hemingway has decided not to touch the literary part of the war in this novel.</span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-91592493058253117132019-10-05T19:40:00.002-07:002019-10-05T20:30:55.963-07:00 East India Company: How it entered the Indian market to make money and how it used the money to buy India itself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I read two books on the East India Company (EIC) which have fascinating details and insights:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-“The Anarchy: The relentless Rise of the East India Company” by William Dalrymple and<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-“The East India Company: The world’s most powerful corporation” by Tirthankar Roy<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The company acquired territories with money as much as it did with guns. The Indian kingdoms were bought as much it was fought. The company paid bribes to Indian rulers and army commanders to betray each other as well as to make or break alliances. It paid its Indian soldiers much more than Indian kings and obviously got the best and most loyal troops. They were able to buy the services of even the Naga Sadhus as troops. Before this, the Sadhus had fought on the side of the Muslim princes. The naked and ash painted Sadhus fought with clubs, swords and arrows.<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The company used money to become powerful not only in India but in Britain itself. It had contributed funds to British members of Parliament as well as the Crown and ministers creating a strong lobby to protect and promote its interests. The company had bribed even the Solicitor General and the Attorney General. A parliamentary investigation found the EIC guilty of bribery which lead to the impeachment of the Lord President of the Council and imprisonment of the Company’s governor. <o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">About 40% of its shareholders were MPs. After their return from India some Company officials used their fortunes to get elected to the Parliament and lobby even more for the company. When EIC faced bankruptcy, the Parliament bailed out the company with public funds since EIC was too big to be allowed to fail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Initially the company brought silver and gold from UK for purchase of Indian items such as clothes and spices. But later it acquired enough local wealth with which it financed its purchases and trade. The company offered military service to Indian princes in return for payments and land grants. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indian bankers and money lenders such as the Seths competed with each other to finance EIC’s military and trade ventures. EIC borrowed annually 400,000 rupees from Jagat Seth in the period 1718-1730. The Hindu moneylenders were giving credit and financial support to the Muslim rulers too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Greek, Turk, Afghan, Persian and other Muslim kings invaded and conquered parts of India with their army as part of their plan for expansion of their territories or for plunder. But the British conquered and colonized the whole of India and ruled for three centuries not with any grand strategy, imperial design or mighty army. The British East India Company (EIC) came just for trade and became rulers by taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the decadence of the Mughals and the fighting between rival kingdoms. The EIC used mostly Indian soldiers and money to fight Indian princes and take Indian territories bit by bit until they had the whole of the subcontinent. It was only then that the British government stepped in and assumed control of India as a colony.<u5:p></u5:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EIC started off as a joint stock corporation and ended up as ruler of the world’s largest empire. It sought very humbly permission for trade from the rich and powerful Mughal emperor Jahangir, the richest monarch in the world at that time. The Mughal army was huge with about 4 million men. When the first EIC vessel reached Surat in 1608, England was a a relatively poor and largely agricultural country which had spent almost a century at war with itself on religious issues. England had just 5% of India’s population and 3 % of world manufacturing output. In contrast, India had a large population of 150 million and accounted for a quarter of global manufacturing. In two centuries EIC made the last Mughal emperor Shah Alam as its pensioner, paid and protected by the company. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EIC was concerned only with profit for its share holders and it cautioned its employees not to get into wars and local conflcits which could go out of control. The EIC headquarters did not like building of forts and raising troops which would add to avoidable expenditure. But the company chiefs and officials in India took initiatives and became adventurous seeing the opportunities thrown up by the constant fighting between the local kingdoms and rivalry between rulers. In many cases, the Indian princes sought out the support of the EIC to settle scores among themselves. The company joined with one faction, defeated the other and eventually took over both sides. The audacious and ambitious company chiefs like Clive, Cornwallis and Hastings went beyond the company brief and acquired territories and fortunes for themselves. The traders and agents of EIC became administrators of law and order, tax collection and justice. They waged wars and signed peace agreements like the governments.<u5:p></u5:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At its zenith, the company had a 200,000 strong army which was twice the size of the British army in England at that time. It accounted for nearly half of British trade and significant portion of tax revenue and customs duties.<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EIC had many setbacks too. When EIC tried to use force against the Mughals in Bengal in 1686 with 19 warships, 200 cannons and 600 soldiers, they were quickly beaten. The emperor seized EIC’s factories, captured and imprisoned company officials and expelled them from Bengal. The English then begged sued for peace and begged for pardon which was granted by the emperor in 1690. <u5:p></u5:p>Thousands of British died of diseases and in the wars. But they did not give up. They worked patiently, waiting for the right opportunities and making the right alliances<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EIC did not recruit the best from universities or gave any formal training to its new employees. Many of those who joined the firm were the unemployed from the lower strata of the society who did not mind the risks of death and diseases in India. With autonomy of operations, the adventurers learnt to become administrators, the merchants turned into warriors and the soldiers became merchants. To compensate for the risks and suffering, the company allowed its officials to do private trading on the side to make extra money. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Robert Clive came to India as a humble accountant when he was 18. But he transformed as a military, political and business leader in India and went back as a multimillionaire. Clive became the richest self-made man in the whole of Europe. After the battle of Plassey, he took over the contents of the treasury ( estimated at 2.5 million pounds) of the defeated rulers of Bengal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The acquisition of Indian empire was one of the earliest examples of Public Private Partnership (PPP). EIC was given a monopoly charter by the British government. When the company went beyond commerce and started building the empire, the government provided active support militarily and administratively.<u5:p></u5:p> EIC was also an early example of crony capitalism. The company was given monopoly, support and privileges by the State whose MPs and the Crown had earned profit from it.<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Madras, Bombay and Calcutta are essentially creation of EIC as company towns. Before the company came in, they were just unknown villages. In fact St George fort was built by Francis Day with his own money. EIC Headquarters was unhappy with his decision to incur so much expenditure in building a fort which was considered as a needless extravagance. Day was called back to London in 1641 and chasteised. Later, the company realized the wisdom of Day and reimbursed him. EIC built its first fort in Madras which was not a strategic place for a fort. Francis Day the company official in Coromandel coast fell in love with a Tamil woman. He chose the area to build the fort since it was next to her village. Madras was the first English colonial town in India with its own civil administration. <u5:p></u5:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the beginning, the EIC could not get the required permission for trade from the Mughal emperor. So the British government had to send an ambassador for ‘Economic Diplomacy’ to open up the Indian market. It sent Thomas Roe as Ambassador to Emperor Jahangir. Roe used his diplomatic skills to get trade concessions and support from the Mughal and win him over from the influence of the Portuguese who were already entrenched in the Indian market. During his stay of three years from 1615 to 1618, he sent regular political despatches to his government on the situation of India.<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Picture: Thomas Roe petitioning Emperor Jahangir</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Boston Tea Party which lead to the independence of US is also connected to EIC. The British government wanted to open the North American market for the tea exported by EIC and this provoked the Americans.<u5:p></u5:p> The crown lost America but the company won the Indian empire for the crown. <u5:p></u5:p>Cornwallis, who surrendered the British forces to American freedom fighters in 1781 redeemed himself by defeating Tipu Sultan and other Indian rulers and gained territory for the crown.<o:p></o:p><u5:p></u5:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EIC was the world’s first Drug Lord, much before Pablo Escobar. It smuggled Opium from India to pay for its import of tea from China. EIC encouraged peasants in Bihar and Bengal to cultivate opium. <u5:p></u5:p>Since opium was prohibited by the Chinese government, the company would not use its own ships to carry the opium to China. It sold the opium in auctions in Calcutta from where it was smuggled by independent agents. These agents bribed the Chinese customs and managed to sell their contraband. They deposited their Chinese currency earnings in EIC office in Canton. In 1838, the opium exports were 1400 tons a year. When the Chinese tried to stop the smuggling, the British government fought three opium wars to force opium down the mouth of the Chinese and make millions of them as addicts. <u5:p></u5:p> The Opium wars and the humiliation suffered have left deep historical scars in the Chinese. They are taking revenge by conquering the west through trade, investment and money power just as the East India company did in India. <u5:p></u5:p> </span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-57752462061482770162019-09-25T18:50:00.001-07:002019-09-25T18:50:58.140-07:00The Reluctant Billionaire- biography of Dilip Shanghvi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dilip Shanghvi is a self-made entreprenuer whose company Sun has become the largest Indian pharmaceutical firm and one of the largest in the world. Pharma is not an easy field like IT in which one can become a billionaire overnight. Shanghvi started off as a distributor of psychiatric medicines in Kolkatta and went into manufacturing in Gujarat. He scaled up the business over the decades both organically and through acquisitions. He became rich without the use of crony capitalism route or other short-cuts. </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book brings out Shanghvi’s people skills as an important ingredient of his success. He gave the utmost importance to Medical Representatives and doctors and earned their loyalty to build his prescription-driven business. He himself had sat in the waiting room of many doctors. He is still a hands-on owner promoter who takes decisions after going into details himself.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the beginning of his ventures, he had put his boyhood friends and relatives in the business. These friends and relatives worked hard with commitment and helped him succeed. Even now Shanghvi goes on vacations with his childhood friends.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shanghvi is an avid reader. He read not only lot of books on management but also medical journals from which he had acquired knowledge with which he provoked and questioned R and D scientists. He listened to and watched professional managers in action and learnt from them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After having started and built Sun Pharma in India with his Gujarati DNA, Shanghvi went global. He acquired the Israeli firm Taro which was doing generics business in US. The Gujarati was up against the formidable and wily Jewish entrepreneur Barrie Levitt who had built Taro in the same way as Shanghvi had created Sun. After having agreed to sell his firm to Sun, Levitt started playing games and dragged the case to an Israeli court. He did a media campaign saying that an Indian was challenging Jewish pride by the acquisition and made it as a case of Israeli honour. Even the Israeli lawyer of Sun doubted the strength of Shanghvi’s case. But Shanghvi changed the lawyer and fought the case and won. After the take over of the company he was gracious enough to give a grand farewell dinner to Levitt with the presence of the senior executives of Taro.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After having won the Jewish war, Shanghvi went in for a Punjabi conquest with the acquisition of Ranbaxy. The executives of Ranbaxy looked down on Sun’s frugal Gujarati culture. At one time, Ranbaxy itself had considered buying up Sun. The haughty and flashy Ranbaxy executives gave a hard time even after Sun acquired their firm. But Shanghvi stood firm and merged Ranbaxy into Sun. One of the first things he did was to get a consultant to analyse and present the cultural differences of the two companies to the senior executives of both the firms. He threw out many Ranbaxy executives whose style and culture did not conform to the frugal and cost conscious Sun business culture.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soma Das, the author of the book has made the biography of Shanghvi interesting by focusing on the larger issues of his business and personality. But the author is a bit carried away with admiration and has highlighted only the positive aspects of Shanghvi. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <u1:p></u1:p>Shanghvi became the richest Indian briefly in 2015 with net worth of 21 billion dollars overtaking Mukesh Ambani. But since then stocks of Sun have come down and his networth has crashed to 8 billion dollars. Sun’s reputation has come under a slight cloud after reports of a whistle blower’s allegations of governance lapses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unlike the flamboyant Ambanis and many other tycoons, Shanghvi keeps a low profile and is publicity-shy. He lives a modest and austere lifestyle as a vegetarian. But Shanghvi is yet to display corporate social responsibility like Azim Premji and other benevolent rich Indians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pharmaceuticals is a sector in which India outshines China and has established its reputation in the world as a whole. India’s export of pharmaceuticals in 2018 were 18 billion dollars as against China’s 9 billion. Over one quarter of India’s exports go to USA and more than half goes to the developed regulated markets. While China imports 28 billion dollars of pharmaceueticals India’s imports are just 2 billion dollars. At last even China has recognized the competitiveness and quality of Indian generics and has just opened its market for imports from India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">India needs more Shanghvis to produce affordable generic medicines for the masses of India and the world. Shanghvi is an inspiration for Indian entrepreneurs.</span></div>
viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-55733231221127759512019-08-21T23:45:00.000-07:002019-08-22T00:56:29.251-07:00Chinese Socialism needs Indian medicines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Every major advanced developed country in the world is importing generic medicines from India. In 2018, the US imported from India 5.02 billion, UK-550 million, Canada-248 m, Australia- 248 m, Germany-215 m, France- 190 m, Belgium- 180 m and Netherlands-129 m. These countries are not doing any favour to India. They have been forced to do this to reduce the high cost of their countries’s health care. As this consciousness grows, India’s exports keep increasing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But for India's inexpensive generics, several hundred thousands of African patients, who could not afford the expensive patented medicines, would have died. Organizations such as Gates and Melinda Foundation, Clinton Foundation, WHO and Doctors without borders bought the Indian generics to distribute to the poor patients in Africa. They even took on the fight with the Multinationals on behalf of India. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">India exported 15 billion dollars of medicines to the world in 2018. India is the largest (by volume) exporter of generic medicines in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More than fifty percent of India’s exports went to the advanced developed countries with the most rigorous quality control and registration procedures. India has around 200 pharma units approved by US FDA. India has the second largest FDA-approved units after USA. There are<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">four Indian companies ( Sun Pharma, Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy Labs) in the top ten global generic medicine producers in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Pharmaceuticals is one area in which India has beaten China in exports. In 2018, India exported 15 billion dollars as against 9 bn of China. What is interesting is that the Indian manufacturers use a substantial quantity of Chinese raw materials. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2018, India imported just 2 billion dollars of medicines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Guess how much did China import from India and the world … just 39 million dollars from India out of their total imports of 28 billion dollars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is the break up of major sources of Chinese imports:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From Germany 6.8 billion dollars, US- 4.7 bn, France-2.3 bn, Italy-1.8 bn and over a billion dollars each from Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, Japan and UK.. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Chinese imported much more from Argentina, Brazil, Poland, Norway, Hungary, Finland and Greece than from India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">China, which has developed its own versions of Amazon, Google and Facebook by blocking these American giants, seem to have become a willing victim of the western pharmaceutical multinationals who take the Chinese government and consumers for a ride... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a no brainer.. the Chinese need the less expensive generics from India as much as the rich as well as the poor countries of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This theme was brought in a Chinese film “ Dying to survive ( released in 2018) in which a Chinese smuggles Indian medicines for treatment of about a thousand Chinese cancer patients who could not afford the pricey branded ones. The film was based on a real life story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> poster of " Dying to survive"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Chinese government, known for smart nationalistic policies seem to be plainly dumb in the case of generic medicines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Chinese dumbness is an opportunity for India. The government of India should push the Chinese government to increase import of Indian medicines to partly reduce the massive trade deficit of over fifty billion dollars. The Chinese can certainly buy a couple of billions of dollars of generics from India to reduce their high health care cost. The Chinese government will do a favour to their own people by importing more generic medicines from India. </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Chinese Socialism needs Indian medicines..</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Source of statistics: ITC, Geneva</span></span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-87437640056023341052019-08-04T20:18:00.003-07:002019-08-05T00:59:38.674-07:00Bottle of Lies - Book on Indian pharmaceutical exports<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have just finished reading the book “ Bottle of Lies: The inside story of generic drug boom” by Katherine Eban<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The main hero in the story is Dinesh Thakur, the whistle blower, who collected 48 million dollars for exposing the scandal of quality control frauds in Ranbaxy which was fined 500 million dollars by the US FDA. The other heroes are the FDA inspectors who jump over walls to pick up trash containing shredded documents and discarded samples. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author has used the Ranbaxy story to condemn Indian generic exporters. She has gone beyond India with a larger agenda, portraying generics as dangerous as against the patented branded medicines. It appears that she is part of the conspiracy of the Big Parma majors to trash the inexpensive generics and the Indian exporters.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She does not even pretend to be objective. She has dug only the dark side of Ranbaxy and does not acknowledge the merits of Ranbaxy which was a leader in Indian Pharma industry and was a pioneer in opening the US and global markets. She has completely ignored the strength of Indian Pharma entrepreneurs and scientific community. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Undoubtedly, there is some truth in the allegations of the author. The Indian drug quality control is lax and disorganized. The Indian drug manufacturers have been converted to strict quality controls and good manufacturing practices, driven mainly after discovering the hugely lucrative US market. In their hurry to file new registrations with FDA and reach the market before the others, some companies have cut corners, cooked the books and compromised on quality for profits. Ranbaxy set the bad example followed by some others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indians are not the only ones who get FDA fines. Even the Big pharma tries to cheat and get caught. GSK, a British MNC paid a fine of 750 million dollars and the whistle blower got the highest reward of 96 million for exposing the poor manufacturing practices in their unit in Puerto Rico. Even the famous Pfizer paid 2.3 billion dollars fine in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, there have been even bigger scandals from the Brahmins of Quality: The German Volkswagon’s cheating on emissions and Kobe Steel’s poor steel products, besides American scandals such as Enron and Madoff. But one cannot damn Germany, Japan or US, as Katherine has done with India based on a few cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The truth is that the US desperately needs less expensive Indian generics to reduce the huge cost of health care. That’s why they import five billion dollars worth pharmaceuticals from India annually. US is the number one market with a one third share of India’s global exports. Half India’s exports go to highly regulated markets such as UK, Germany, France, Canada and Australia, besides US. These countries, who are aware of the Indian issues and culture, are going to continue and even increase their imports in the future. The Big Parma has also joined the boom of India’s exports by acquiring and setting up manufacturing units in India. Mylan, the top generic producer in the world has many production units in India. The President of Mylan is an Indian, Rajiv Malik, who is trashed by the author of the book. It is good to see four Indian companies ( Sun Pharma, Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy Labs) in the top ten global generic medicine producers in the world. And, India has the largest number of FDA approved pharma units in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pharmaceuticals is one area in which India has beaten China in exports. In 2018, India exported 15 billion dollars as against 9 bn of China. What is interesting is that the Indian manufacturers use a substantial quantity of Chinese raw materials. While India imports 2 billon dollars of pharma products, China imports 28 billion dollars annually. It is a pity that they import only about 40 million dollars from India but import more from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Greece and Hungary. Obviously, the Chinese need the less expensive generics from India as much as the rich countries of the world. So China should be the next target of Indian pharma exporters. The government of India should push this with the Chinese with whom India has a massive trade deficit of over fifty billion dollars. The Chinese can certainly buy a couple of billions of dollars of generics from India to reduce their high health care cost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite the clear agenda, motives and prejudices of the author, the book is informative and useful. It gives an insight into the bureaucracy, corruption and politics and challenges faced by FDA. It has shortage of staff to deal with the large number of inspections around the world. The inspector job is unattractive with poor salary and hazardous travels to remote areas to do risky detective and investigation work in environments of different cultures and value systems. The book is a must read for Indian pharma industry and policy makers to understand how FDA works and to improve the quality standadards of our own exporters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-61123508928631797772019-07-31T19:59:00.001-07:002019-07-31T20:06:10.361-07:00Age of ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China- book by Evan Osnos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Evan Osnos, who lived in China as correspondent of New Yorker and who speaks Chinese, gives a fresh perspective on the multidimensional and rapid transformations taking place in the Chinese society. He does this through the narration of his encounters and interactions with individuals who are entrepreneurs, company executives, party leaders, government officials, workers, peasants, artists and dissidents. He describes how the people try to make sense of the new dawn of China from their own point of view and advance their careers and goals. Some of them are lucky to hit the jackpot while others struggle and fail. Some entrepreneurs succeed in becoming billionaires legitimately as first movers. But there are also lot of corrupt officials, party leaders and those close to power who also become rich quickly.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The journalists, artists and activists play a cat and mouse game with authorities all the time. Each side tries to push the boundaries of freedom of expression and state control of thought relentlessly moving back and forth. The authorities sometimes resort to ridiculous methods such as banning jasmine flowers in the market to prevent them from being reminder of Jasmine revolution in Tunisia which brought down a dictatorship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The authorities do not have fixed doctrines except for the determination to perpetuate their own power and control. Confucius was persona non grata at one time. But later the authorities changed their mind and rehabilitated him. They have even gone to the extent of using Confucius name as soft power diplomacy by opening Confucius Centres all over the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Osnos has not come to any conclusions or given the readers any clue to the future of China. But after reading the book, one gets the impression that the process of reforms and transformation of China are likely to go on for a long time. What is clear is that the Chinese have a remarkable capacity and hunger to learn, adapt, improve and excel themselves quickly with resilience and determination. So there is no point in gloating over the Hongkong protests, the economic slowdown and corruption scandals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The absence of democracy is not going to stop the country from becoming more prosperous and be a global leader. Look at Singapore. It is respected as a role model for good governance, development, cleanliness, efficiency, least corrupt and globally competitive. But it is not a democracy. China will go the Singapore way. So will Cuba and Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Osnos confirms my own impression after my visit to China last year. As an Indian, I saw a lesson and inspiration for India from the Chinese success and achievements. I admire the way the Chinese have transformed themselves within a generation. I have nothing but admiration for the way in which they have become global leaders in areas such as high speed trains, electric vehicles and renewable energy, overtaking US in such a short period. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">India has to manage the relationship with China smartly given the complex role of China as a threat, competitor, collaborator, trade partner and global leader in manufacturing, trade and technology. The US-China rivalry offers opportunities for India to play one against the other and get the best from both the great powers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-30497052859123951022019-06-20T21:49:00.000-07:002019-06-21T07:18:44.843-07:00Cycling in Minneapolis <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I cycled almost every day between 10 and 20 kms during my stay in Minneapolis from 22 May to 16 June. I found it as the most enjoyable and leisurely way of sightseeing while getting some exercise as a bonus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was inspired by Becky, my daughter in law and son Raja both of whom who go to office by cycle and take their children in the bike trailer and tagalong. They do it on many days even in the harsh winter when the temperature is many degrees below freezing point. Thanks to the daily cycling, both Raja and Becky are fit and do not need to go to gym. While the five year old Divya enjoys pedaling in the TagAlong, the 30-month old Leela prefers to go to sleep in the Burley trailer listening to audio stories from iPhone. Becky's parents, in their seventies, also cycle every day besides going on cycling tours to other parts of US and Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Becky is not only an enthusiastic cyclist but also a passionate activist promoter of cycling and use of public transport to reduce use of cars and pollution. She works with NGOs in these fields.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Becky taking Divya in Tag-along </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Raja taking the two kids to daycare in Burley trailer</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Minneapolis, ranked as one of the best biking cities in USA, proactively promotes cycling as a healthy, low-cost, safe and environment-friendly way of travel.</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> The city has 130 miles of on-street and 100 miles of off-street bikeways. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are free public facilities for pumping air and minor repair tools in cycling routes. The city runs and efficient and user-friendly bike-share program called as Nice Ride which has a fleet of 1600 cycles and 170 stations. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are special maps and Apps for cycling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are several hundred miles of cycle trails beyond the city going through scenic interior areas of the state. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The buses and trains have special places to take the cycles along.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The state, city and county authorities collaborate with NGOs in planning, maintenance and innovation of the cycling facilities and use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Traffic rules and regulations are in place to ensure the safety and efficiency of the cycling system. A new culture of cycling has evolved. Car drivers respect cyclists and give way to them. The cyclists offer the same courtesy to pedestrians. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you hear the shout "on your left" one needs to give way to the faster cyclist behind who wants to overtake.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thousands of Minnesotans commute to work in cycles with special and stylish bike wear and change into office dress after </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">reaching the place of work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are five different interesting routes for cycling:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- on both sides of the Mississippi River and crisscrossing through the various bridges with different architectures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- around the many lakes. A popular circuit is the 12-mile loop connecting the Cedar lake, Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet. Each of the lake has a perimeter ranging from 1.7 to 3.2 miles. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-Midtown Greenway, a dedicated cycle path through the city for 6 miles. It is a kind of cycle highway with one lane to go and another to come. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-cycle trails, going out of the city through scenic routes. A popular one is the Grand Round Scenic Byway which covers 55 miles around the city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- on the streets and roads of the city, where large space is marked prominently for exclusive use of cyclists. In some streets, which are designated as bike boulevards, the cycles have priority over vehicles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More information: </span><a href="https://rootsrated.com/minneapolis-mn/cycling">https://rootsrated.com/minneapolis-mn/cycling</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> riding along the river near the office of Raja</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Riding on the historic stone arch bridge</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">riding in a park</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORqLYDfvVhnkG4QHuonROonbRPgHP0_Gs_icaM9yG3Ssmjjq2hIv5u742PXsVqYiLvMnbwaWOMAWUs68SCwwOVc6sI9jB1kxb6iYR2-ReAg6Kb_8uhEN587ZgHukSeOhN3Wr3bA/s1600/cycling+minneapolis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORqLYDfvVhnkG4QHuonROonbRPgHP0_Gs_icaM9yG3Ssmjjq2hIv5u742PXsVqYiLvMnbwaWOMAWUs68SCwwOVc6sI9jB1kxb6iYR2-ReAg6Kb_8uhEN587ZgHukSeOhN3Wr3bA/s320/cycling+minneapolis.jpg" width="180" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Midtown Greenway with divided lanes</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the view of standup paddling and boating in the Lake of the Isles which has a 4 km cycling path around</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> view of downtown from the lake</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only problem is that one has to lock the cycle carefully every time one parks it. Cycle theft is common, even from garages in the houses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After the Minneapolis experience, I have bought a cycle and use it in my village (Alangudi Mahajanam, 35 km from Trichy and 350 km from Chennai) during my visits. Of course, there are no bike routes there. I ride through tractor roads between the rice and sugarcane fields behind my house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would love to cycle in Gurgaon where I live. My golf course, metro station and shopping malls are within cyclable distances. But the roads are dangerous and dusty, although a few enthusiasts do it bravely. The good news is that there is growing realization among the Gurgaon youth about the value and pleasure of cycling. </span></div>
viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-7764122760263866792019-05-15T03:59:00.001-07:002019-05-15T04:03:59.274-07:00A Gandhian journey with Guha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It was indeed an epic journey reading the three long books on Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha</span><u1:p style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></u1:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">1 Gandhi before India<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">2 Gandhi: the years that changed the world and<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">3 India after Gandhi: the history of the world’s largest democracy<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Guha gives a fresh perspective on Gandhi with his objective and scholarly approach. He keeps the readers spellbound with his stories, anecdotes, comments and conclusions with his distinct style of narration. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In these three books Guha gives a comprehensive account of Gandhi’s life: how he evolved with circumstances; the books and people who influenced him; how he became the Mahatma; his politics and spiritualism; and how he used his pioneering methods of satyagraha, civil disobedience and fasting to achieve outcomes. Guha gives the contexts of Gandhi’s actions with details of how his admirers encouraged him and how his critics tried to pull him down.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi united Indians from different languages, religions, castes, ethnic groups and socioeconomic groups and directed their energy to freedom movement, abolition of untouchability, social reforms and communal harmony.<u1:p></u1:p>He was the first one to make such remarkable contribution to India’s unity in diversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Despite not being a charismatic orator, he inspired people with his many thousands of speeches. He spoke to all kinds of audience ranging from peasants, workers, professionals, intellectuals, political parties, religious gatherings and conferences. His speeches stopped communal violence, saved many lives and drove people to social reform and personal purification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi was a prolific writer. He wrote thousands of articles, letters, pamphlets and petitions to governments. Besides responding on or explaining policy issues, he took the trouble to write in detail, when people asked for help in personal matters about love, marriage and religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi felt perfectly at home in his austere ashrams, in the houses of village peasants, in the British jails, the mansions of rich industrialists and in the Buckingham Palace. Tatas, Birlas and Bajajs donated money and extended support to Gandhi’s ashrams, campaigns and movements.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">He is perhaps the only leader who walked the maximum miles across India meeting people, addressing meetings, resolving problems, preaching social reforms and religious harmony. He walked and fasted even in his old age when the doctors advised him against overstraining. He walked in the hot summers and through all kinds of terrains.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">He went on fasting and self sacrifice to persuade governments to stop undesirable legislations and communities to stop conflicts.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">He experimented with food, nutrition, nature cure and celibacy. He went overboard in the practice and preaching of abstinence from sex by trying to enforce this even with young people including his own sons.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi was attacked viciously by Jinnah and Ambedkar who considered themselves as rivals. Gandhi responded to their criticism with reasoning and arguments, while showing respect and courtesy to them. The Communists had called him as an imperial stooge and one Andhra communist leader went all the way to Gandhi’s place of birth to spit on a Gandhi memorial.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi’s life was an open book. He admitted his weaknesses, changed his course several times when he realised the need and accepted the advice of others on many things. It was Rajaji who stopped Gandhi (in his sixties) from his pursuit of spiritual marriage to the Bengali beauty Sarala Devi. Gandhi was influenced by Tolstoy, Gokhale and some others who had enlightened him.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Conservative Hindu Sanatanists tried to kill him with a bomb in Pune but fortunately his car got delayed and the bomb fell on the wrong car . They showed black flags protesting against his campaign to abolish untouchability and opening of temples to the Dalits. Eventually it was another fanatic Hindu Godse, who assassinated him with the grouse that Gandhi was too generous to the Muslims. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In contrast, the British rulers treated him with due respect and courtesy even while acknowledging that he was the biggest danger to their Indian empire. While convicting Gandhi, a British judge openly expressed his personal anguish about his legal burden of having to punish a great man. A British government circular in the forties had asked the civil servants to start referring to him as Mahatma. While there were a few racist detractors such as Churchil, overall, the British showed remarkable tolerance and reverence to him. Thank God India was not a Portuguese, Spanish or French Colony. They would have killed Gandhi long before..<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">At the same time, Gandhi had never called the British as enemies. He showed respect and friendship to the British and he just wanted them to be true to their own principle of freedom which India deserved.<u1:p></u1:p>He showed such respect to all his other opponents and opposing ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Gandhi was responsible for inspiring and nurturing thousands of value based political leaders and followers. Under his inspiration, thousands of Indians gave up their jobs and sacrificed their lives for the nation. There were many foreigners who devoted their lives looking after him, supporting his causes and participated in his many experiments with life. He set an example with his actions and sacrifices. He never asked anyone to do what he would not do. The leaders who imbibed this spirit laid the foundation for the free India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">My admiration for Gandhi has increased after reading these books. I have also become a fan of Guha, who has portrayed, analysed and interpreted Gandhi with objectiveness and clarity based on his original research.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Guha’s books on Gandhi deserve to be made mandatory reading in schools and colleges as well as in management schools and civil service curriculum. Obviously some beliefs, teachings and practices of Gandhi do not fit in today’s world. But the success of Gandhi in uniting Indians and achieving freedom and social reforms will certainly ignite and inspire the minds and hearts of young In</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">dians.</span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-57232975552810926742019-01-26T18:54:00.002-08:002019-01-27T06:33:24.466-08:00Carnatic music flowing into Cauvery river in Thiruvaiyaru Aradhana<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_MailOriginal"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I attended the 172nd edition of Thyagaraja Aradhana </span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(tribute) <span style="color: #1d2129;">music festival which </span>honours<span style="color: #1d2129;">the </span>legendary <span style="color: #1d2129;">Carnatic music composer</span>every year on his death anniversary<span style="color: #1d2129;">. Thyagaraja composed </span><span style="color: #1d2129;">most of his music while living in Thiruvaiyaru where he died in 1846. The Festival is held in the premises of his samadhi </span><span style="color: #1d2129;">(memorial) on the banks of the Cauvery river. </span>This is perhaps the oldest classical music festival in India.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZON27A0QzyH0DPO0mAQA9domFuprluSc9DV6CA4pCfMlICaFdwBSAP60OvFRQs7rCNshrBAum-8WWDxky5u7WqVuAIXUVE7orbtEK9dTGbQZNzGuQvIsYKDcVW_VbIr_dscVRiQ/s1600/thyagaraja+kolam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="562" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZON27A0QzyH0DPO0mAQA9domFuprluSc9DV6CA4pCfMlICaFdwBSAP60OvFRQs7rCNshrBAum-8WWDxky5u7WqVuAIXUVE7orbtEK9dTGbQZNzGuQvIsYKDcVW_VbIr_dscVRiQ/s320/thyagaraja+kolam.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This is the Thyagaraja image in Kolam in front of a house in Thiruvaiyaru</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>A total of 242 concerts </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">were held <span style="color: #1d2129;">in the period 21-25 January. Typically the new </span>musicians <span style="color: #1d2129;">are given 10 or 15 minutes while the established ones including Jesudas get 20 minutes t</span>o perform<span style="color: #1d2129;">. The concerts start at 9 am and go non-stop till 11 pm without any break. They are organised with Swiss punctuality without waste of any time. The</span>re are <span style="color: #1d2129;"> two stages. When </span>one <span style="color: #1d2129;">concert is about to finish, the next group sits on the other stage waiting to start. Nadhaswaram performances are </span>the second most <span style="color: #1d2129;">predominant, after vocal concerts. </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik08JGTYPFfJwyAbmbXtAZ2HwUdqAg3-v7DVyVf7_evwoV6e_BOLYwN7nJC5HWih7dGL1pY6utzgHCqucxU8d984_uvRNXznAnbtB5VfkiO_RxmeAG0dMStz6Yiwx6v8dfq6eCng/s1600/thyagaraja+jesudas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="562" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik08JGTYPFfJwyAbmbXtAZ2HwUdqAg3-v7DVyVf7_evwoV6e_BOLYwN7nJC5HWih7dGL1pY6utzgHCqucxU8d984_uvRNXznAnbtB5VfkiO_RxmeAG0dMStz6Yiwx6v8dfq6eCng/s320/thyagaraja+jesudas.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The musicians consider it a privilege to perform in the Aradhana and come here paying themselves for their travel and accomodation. They do not get any performance fees either. Some of them come regularly every year.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Those learning Carnatic music worship Thyagaraja as a saint and perform pujas at his temple.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1AkSKV-llT3sh3g4ZggcoSM4DHl_3-3nQc-ii6fAnx-PcUQoqMe3EXyJc8r59dep-if8tMNrsNfYxxkYWnxacB-IJsUx1sRZyrufZCe8NP5WNXpg1rZsWJ0FSMHZAK1HrKQZig/s1600/thyagaraja+temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1AkSKV-llT3sh3g4ZggcoSM4DHl_3-3nQc-ii6fAnx-PcUQoqMe3EXyJc8r59dep-if8tMNrsNfYxxkYWnxacB-IJsUx1sRZyrufZCe8NP5WNXpg1rZsWJ0FSMHZAK1HrKQZig/s320/thyagaraja+temple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>T<span style="color: #1d2129;">he vocalists sing </span>mostly <span style="color: #1d2129;">in Telugu and a </span>few songs<span style="color: #1d2129;">in Sanskrit, since the Thyagaraja, a Telugu Brahmin from T</span>h<span style="color: #1d2129;">iruvarur composed in his mother tongue and the mother of the mother tongue </span>Sanskrit<span style="color: #1d2129;">. </span>‘<span style="color: #1d2129;">Sri Rama</span>’<span style="color: #1d2129;">is the m</span>uch <span style="color: #1d2129;">repeated refrain in most of the songs</span>. Thyagaraja <span style="color: #1d2129;">was a devotee of Rama.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>The music festival culminates with Pancharathna singing on the last day which was on 25 January this year. It <span style="color: #1d2129;">was an amazing experience to see thousands of people (professionals as well as audience) singing together </span>in chorus <span style="color: #1d2129;">the Pancharathna </span>(five gems) <span style="color: #1d2129;">Kritis </span>( musical compositions) <span style="color: #1d2129;">composed by Thyagaraja. The organisers had distributed copies of the Telugu and Sanskrit (four in Telugu and one in Sanskrit) song lyrics in Tamil script for the audience. Th</span>is <span style="color: #1d2129;">event is telecast live in Doordharshan Tamil channel every year. <u1:p></u1:p></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There are no tickets for the concerts which are open to the public. The hall becomes full and overflowing outside for the Pancharathna event and when celebrities come to sing. This year the celebrity singer was Jesudas from Kerala. <u1:p></u1:p><span style="color: #1d2129;">The music can be heard not only inside the hall but also in the streets of the town which are fitted with loud speakers.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>There was a time, when women were not allowed to sing at the festival.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The credit for opening women’s participation goes to <span style="color: #404040;">Bangalore Nagarathnamma</span>. She <span style="color: #404040;">was a </span>Carnatic singer, <span style="color: #222222;">cultural activist </span>and <span style="color: #222222;">scholar </span><span style="color: #404040;">in the early twentieth century in Karnataka. After becoming an ardent devotee of Thyagaraja she came to Thiruvaiyaru where she settled down in 1920</span>. She <span style="color: #404040;">built a </span>temple over <span style="color: #404040;"> Thyagaraja </span>samadhi <span style="color: #404040;">and </span>contributed to the tradition of the Aradhana. Her samadhi is next to Thyagaraja’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>It was not easy for her. She hailed from the </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> devadasi </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(courtesan) <span style="color: #404040;">community, </span><span style="color: #222222;"></span>which was looked down. She <span style="color: #222222;">was the first president of the Association of the Devadasis of Madras Presidency. She </span>was t<span style="color: #222222;">he "first female artist to pay income tax" in Madras </span>province in those days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>The President of the Aradhana committee is Rangasamy Moopanar, a rich landlord from Kabisthalam, near Thiruvaiyaru. Karuppiah (GK) Moopanar, his elder brother and Congress stalwart was the President for 36 years till his death in 2002. His son GK Vasan is the chairman of the Board of Trustees. The Moopanar family has been well known as patrons of culture. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Thiruvaiyaru is a quiet small town with a population of around 20,000. It does not have proper restaurants or hotels to accommodate the artistes and festival visitors, who stay in Thanjavur, 12 km away. <span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #282828;">Thiruvaiyaru is known as the land of five rivers (Iyaru means five rivers) namely Cauvery, Vennar, Vettar, Vadavar, and Kudamurutti rivers. The deity in the famous temple in the town is Aiyarappan /Panchandeeswarar which mean Lord of five rivers.<u1:p></u1:p></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There is belief that those who die in Thiruvaiyaru, considered as the sacred equivalent of Benares, will go to heaven. Some old people come to stay in the Chattirams (charity accommodation) at their terminal stage waiting to die there. Sixteenth day Ceremonies </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">as well as anniversary rites <span style="color: #1d2129;">for the dead are done on the bank of the Cauvery river in the town. There are over fifty Brahmin families which live on the income of performing the rites for the dead. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>The venue of the annual music festival is the samadhi of the saint which is on the bank of the Cauvery river.</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The audience sit on the floor which is just pure river sand and enjoy the breeze coming over the Cauvery waters. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The music hall is open-air with shamiana cloth cover on top. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It feels as though the <span style="color: #1d2129;">music flows into the river. The music- filled water has made the Cauvery delta region fertile, as evident from the lush green fields of rice, coconut, sugar cane, betel leaf and bananas. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u1:p></u1:p>The historical prosperity of the region around Thirvaiyaru had given more time for the people of the region to pursue music, dance and other </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">forms of <span style="color: #1d2129;">arts and culture. Thygaraja and the other two famous composers (Trinity of Carnatic Music) Shyama Shastri and Muthusamy Dikshidar were born in Thiruvarur, another town in the same delta region</span>, seventy <span style="color: #1d2129;">km away from Thiruvaiyaru. Many of the </span>Carnatic musicians <span style="color: #1d2129;">come from the Cauvery delta region. Proud of this lineage, artistes use the name of the place as their first name such as Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Papanasam Ramani, Thanjavur Raju, Kumbakonam Aravind, Mayavaram Pandian, Ayyanpetteai Haridoss and Thruvaiyaru Murugan. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">The region of Thiruvaiyaru and Thiruvarur was part of the Chola dynasty of Thanjavur which had patronised arts and culture and built historic temples. The Chola dynasty has a distinct place in Indian history. Cholas were the only Indian </span>rulers <span style="color: #1d2129;">who ventured outside India conquering overseas territories and colonising parts of South East Asia. Alas.. History has its own way of humbling the proud. After the decline of Cholas in the 15th century, Thanjavur came under the Telugu speaking Governors appointed by Vijayanagara empire. In 1675 the Marathas took over Thanjavur and ruled till they lost to the British in the ninteenth century. There is still a Maratha dynasty prince living in the Thanjavur palace surrounded by a small Marathi community. The Maratha kings promoted Sanskrit and before them the Nayaks patronised Telugu language. So this explains the Telugu and Sanskrit compositions of Thyagaraja who did not bother to use Tamil in his music although he had lived in the heart of Tamilnadu. </span></span></div>
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Poor me.. despite the fact that my village is close to Thiruvaiyaru,I did not understand a word of the songs of my neighbour Thyagaraja which were only in Telugu and Sanskrit...Moopanar, the President of the Board of the Thyagaraj Aradhana Trust do not understand either..One of those (among many others) cultural contradictions in Tamil society. </div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20238195.post-84887477249009370222018-08-17T08:17:00.002-07:002018-08-17T21:06:06.252-07:00Confusion of a Tamil in Gurgaon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was in Chennai when Karunanidhi died and had reached Delhi on the day of Vajpayee’s death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There were many things common between Karunanidhi and Vajpayee. Both were charismatic and visionary political leaders, legendary orators and literary celebrities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The reactions to the deaths of the two leaders, who had so much in common, were dramatically different. Oops..correction. There was drama in Chennai but no drama in Delhi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In Delhi, I was able to get taxi and do my shopping of essential items. I even went to the Gym today. We cancelled our bridge tournament in Gymkhana Club as a mark of respect to the departed leader. Public holiday has been declared but there is no undue inconvenience to the public in terms of transport or other essential activities. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But in Chennai, the post-death scene was dramatic and disruptive. Immediately, the shops, restaurants and even roadside tea stalls were closed. Buses, taxis and even autos were taken off the roads. Travellers had difficulty in reaching airports and train stations. I could not buy any gift or fruits or sweets for my family and neighbours. I was prepared for fasting as my way of mourning. But fortunately the restaurant in my hotel (Hotel Design inside the Phoenix mall) was open. In the TV, they were showing people shouting, screaming and weeping loudly. Some wanted/hoped/called for the restoration of life to the Kalaignar. There were fears and rumours about possible violence and damage to public properties such as buses. Fortunately, there were only a few minor incidents. No self-immolations either this time..<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Of course, this is not the first time such reaction was witnessed in Tamilnadu. It was even more dramatic when Jayalalitha, MGR and Annadurai died. In all these cases too, the death was not sudden but expected following prolonged illness.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Hero worship, even after death of the hero, is taken to the stratospheric level in Tamilnadu. It seems to be a unique Tamil tradition/culture/politics/mindset.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was born and brought up in the heart of Tamilnadu, irrigated by Cauvery waters in Thanjavur and Tiruchy. I had studied in Tamil medium schools and enjoyed Tamil literature. My dream in college was to become a Tamil poet. Even now the songs of old movies such Paasa Malar and Paava Mannippu lift me out of Gurgaon and fly me back to walk in the sands of Kollidam river and around the ponds where I had heard them for the first time over village Panchayat board radio loud speakers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">My formative years were shaped, influenced and inspired by the Dravidian movement and its great leaders and writers like Karunanidhi. My Tamil pride made me throw stones on railway stations (symbol of Hindi- imposing Central government) during the anti-Hindi agitation. I failed couple of times in the Hindi exam conducted in Mussorie academy. The Hindi teacher saw I was hopeless. Out of sheer pity, I think she helped me pass with some extra marks of sympathy. Even now I end up paying double to the autowallas since I get confused between pachaas and pachees. I am the most valued customer and sought after sucker in Gurgaon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When I was in the restaurant of Design Hotel, Chennai on the night of 7 August, there was a couple from North India in the next table. They were puzzled and curious by what was happening. They asked the waiters what did the death have to do with denial of essential service for the living. The waiters had no answer or explanation. They shook their heads this way and that way, confusing the North Indian guests even more, as I did to my UPSC <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">interviewers in Delhi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">My Brasilian friends from Copacabana asked my why the Tamils celebrate death instead of life by making Marina beach as a cemetery and reducing the beach space for the celebration of life by the living ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I have no answers or explanation to the North Indian couple or to my Brasilian amigos… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Confusion of a Tamil in Gurgaon?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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viswanathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833490711270796608noreply@blogger.com0