Schooling snippets
K, S and yours truly became pretty close friends – we were called ‘Mum Moorthigal’. We came from the same street, sat on the same last bench, went to the restroom at the same time, had our lunch together and everything together. K was an expert in all the games, I always managed to secure first rank and hence elected the class rep, and S was kind of a convener. S also gave me a tough fight in the academics but always managed to secure a close second. K was the most mischievous and used my class rep position to bail him out in many instances.
There was one girl R in our class on whom K had special affinity. Making her cry used to be his favorite pass time. We sat right behind the girls’ bench with about a foot long space dividing our desk and their bench. K would prepare a string with a knot at one end. During the class he would slowly insert the knot to her hair and tie the other end to a pencil box placed on our desk. As she would attempt to stand at the end of a period the pencil box will fall down or it would hang there from her hair! The class would burst into a laugh. She could not complain because the pencil box would be hers! K, being pretty short, would easily crawl under the benches and desks to reach anybody’s desk without being noticed by the teacher! This way he had access to many of the lunch boxes. R’s would be the primary target and it would be hidden some where and she would be pleading behind K to get her lunch box.
Another common thing K used to do is to spread the chalk powder from the duster on the seats of R’s place. He would do this when the entire class would stand up to say ‘Good morning teacher’ as the teacher entered the class. Given that we had a white tops and blue bottoms as the uniform, as R would stand the next time, the entire class would laugh. Or he would spray the ink to the back of the bench so that it sticks on to R’s tops! Or he would place the pencil box just before R intended to sit. He would drop a small piece of paper from behind into R’s tops and would claim that he had just dropped in a spider. R would make sounds and attempt to clear her back. K would have fun with all such stuff! Sometimes I wondered even R liked K’s mischief. Because she never complained to the class teacher regarding any of these nor she preferred to change her seat!
One of our favorite pass times used to be hanging around the banks of river Sitraaru. The favorite game is the contest of making small flat stones ‘float’. We would carefully choose flat roof tiles and throw them flat over the water surface. The stone would bump and float. Who ever could reach the opposite bank of the river like this would win the game. We also used to play with the river weeds. You could make the bottom of the weed burst by pressing it hard. K used to carefully select small, fluffy weeds and save them in his school bag. He used to burst them in the class suddenly for fun.
Our Tamil teacher was a pretty jovial person. He taught his classes with lots of fun and we all would wait for his classes. K managed to irritate even him one fine day and he used his bamboo stick on him. K was furious and wanted to have revenge. That very day, K punctured the tyres of teacher’s cycle. The next day he placed four of the weeds under teacher’s chair before the Tamil period. To K’s surprise, on that day, the Tamil and Maths teachers exchanged their periods! The Maths teacher was a very tough and rude guy! As we saw him entering the class, K was surprised and terrified! He was asking for my help! I said I could do nothing about this. Maths teacher hardly used to sit during his classes as for most of his time he had to stand near the board! Every time the teacher approached the chair, our pulse rate would increase in anticipation of the eventuality. Fortunately for K, the maths teacher never sat on that day! We all released a sigh of relief at the end of the class. K removed those weeds from under the chair! Those forty five minutes were probably the worst tense moments we would have spent in our time together at the school! At the end fortune always favors the brave!
Being a class rep I had many a duties on my plate. I had to lead the class to the assembly that meant I had to be at the school before everyone. During intervals, I had to lead the class to the restroom. I would shout ‘first two rows, assemble to your right in twos’. Every one should fold their hands behind and walk towards the restroom in twos. And then come back in the same order! Then I would send the next batch and my turn would be the last! I had to memorize some of those prayer songs which on some days I would be requested to sing in the assembly.
Another important job was to control the class during the absence of a teacher. I had to stand in front of the class, and engage the entire class to repeat multiplication tables, or read English lessons. I would also note down the names of the students whom I observed to be talking in the class. The names would be submitted to the class teacher the next day and each would get a good beating with a bamboo stick from the teacher. Now this was an important weapon I had which K exploited to full extend. The entire class knew that we were best of friends and I would never report K or S to the class teacher. None of them dared to complain about K as his name would be reported by me to the class teacher the next day. I also needed to do the roll call and fill in the attendance register every period, update the board with the numbers, helping the teachers etc.
... to be continued ...
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
Torture - of a different kind...
In my early working days in Bombay (now Mumbai), five of us shared the same flat – including the toilet. We had to catch a bus to reach Thane station, take the train to Vikhroli and leg it down to work place – in between had to take care of our breakfast as well. We all liked each others company, well except for the morning toilet waits and the fights followed them.
One of my friends from Chennai came to Mumbai with a single goal – that he should go back to Chennai at the earliest. Some time back when he was struggling for his job, he met a numerologist. And he suggested a name change (add R and A to make it to 4 – your lucky number story). The numerologist also suggested that since my friend’s name would have been written lakhs & lakhs of times in the original ‘wrong’ way, the good effects would not be felt immediately. To right this wrong and to see good effects soon, he should write his ‘new’ name one lakh times and deposit it into a temple’s hundi. The sooner he did it the better for him! My friend without any job at that time, decided to go at the one lakh at one go! And he sat for 5 continuous days – to finish it up and deposited in the hundi! And guess what, the next Monday he received the appointment letter from our company! And can’t he count one plus one as two? He forgot all his 90+ scores he got in his exams all through his curriculum; he forgot his efforts to clear the entrance tests and the wonderful interview he had given the previous week; All that he believed was the change in his name & the repetitions!
From that day he got into the good habit of writing impositions! If he wanted that something should happen he would buy a note, start repeating the same word some 1008 times and then deposit it into a hundi! Since his latest wish was to go back to Chennai at the earliest, he started writing ‘K wants to go to Chennai’. Unlike before he was not jobless now and so he found it difficult to set aside time for this. One fine day, he got a fabulous idea! The ten to fifteen minutes he spent on the toilet pot was the time he had been wasting – and atleast he could finish some 108 repetitions in that time! Then started our problems!
He was allocated to an assignment that would atleast run for the next one year and myself & another were allocated to an assignment that would end the very next month and we would go back to Chennai! He became furious on hearing this and decided that the normal 1008 repetition was not good enough for this problem and he would go at 10008! He started spending more time on the pot! Slowly he became a nuisance. He would wake up early and lock himself in the toilet. We the poor souls outside were given the life time experience on the art of ‘controlling’ our natural thrust in the mornings! And you need to live it through those hours to understand the torturous nature of it! We tried all measures – hit the door, threatened to break his shades – nothing worked. He started spending more and more time in the toilet!
One day, I was in great urgency and our man was inside. I consistently knocked the door! My situation was becoming unbearable – from frustration, I was just pleading! He took his own time - As he came out I took him to the height measuring scale – I told sarcastically ‘Bugger! You have grown two inches taller since you went inside this morning’. ‘Thank you for your wonderful finding my friend. This one inch is what has been a problem between me and my girlfriend. Now she would be happy!’ – came the reply. We had no other choice but to adjust to his routine with little sacrifice to sleep!
And my assignment got over; I came back to Chennai and had to go with a different customer for the next six months. After another four months, again I was sent to Mumbai. I searched for my old friends. Three of them replied they were no longer in Mumbai! I called up K – ‘Buddy where are you?’ ‘Right there in the same flat, with three other guys! We are short of one more guy – want to join?’ came the reply. I packed up my bags and went! I saw a drastic improvement – K had pasted charts and reusable whiteboards all around his room! And he was still writing – ‘K wants to go back to Chennai’ methodically!
And it has been six years now. K is married (to the same girl friend), has a kid and settled down in Mumbai! And his wife complains that he takes too much time in the toilet!
One of my friends from Chennai came to Mumbai with a single goal – that he should go back to Chennai at the earliest. Some time back when he was struggling for his job, he met a numerologist. And he suggested a name change (add R and A to make it to 4 – your lucky number story). The numerologist also suggested that since my friend’s name would have been written lakhs & lakhs of times in the original ‘wrong’ way, the good effects would not be felt immediately. To right this wrong and to see good effects soon, he should write his ‘new’ name one lakh times and deposit it into a temple’s hundi. The sooner he did it the better for him! My friend without any job at that time, decided to go at the one lakh at one go! And he sat for 5 continuous days – to finish it up and deposited in the hundi! And guess what, the next Monday he received the appointment letter from our company! And can’t he count one plus one as two? He forgot all his 90+ scores he got in his exams all through his curriculum; he forgot his efforts to clear the entrance tests and the wonderful interview he had given the previous week; All that he believed was the change in his name & the repetitions!
From that day he got into the good habit of writing impositions! If he wanted that something should happen he would buy a note, start repeating the same word some 1008 times and then deposit it into a hundi! Since his latest wish was to go back to Chennai at the earliest, he started writing ‘K wants to go to Chennai’. Unlike before he was not jobless now and so he found it difficult to set aside time for this. One fine day, he got a fabulous idea! The ten to fifteen minutes he spent on the toilet pot was the time he had been wasting – and atleast he could finish some 108 repetitions in that time! Then started our problems!
He was allocated to an assignment that would atleast run for the next one year and myself & another were allocated to an assignment that would end the very next month and we would go back to Chennai! He became furious on hearing this and decided that the normal 1008 repetition was not good enough for this problem and he would go at 10008! He started spending more time on the pot! Slowly he became a nuisance. He would wake up early and lock himself in the toilet. We the poor souls outside were given the life time experience on the art of ‘controlling’ our natural thrust in the mornings! And you need to live it through those hours to understand the torturous nature of it! We tried all measures – hit the door, threatened to break his shades – nothing worked. He started spending more and more time in the toilet!
One day, I was in great urgency and our man was inside. I consistently knocked the door! My situation was becoming unbearable – from frustration, I was just pleading! He took his own time - As he came out I took him to the height measuring scale – I told sarcastically ‘Bugger! You have grown two inches taller since you went inside this morning’. ‘Thank you for your wonderful finding my friend. This one inch is what has been a problem between me and my girlfriend. Now she would be happy!’ – came the reply. We had no other choice but to adjust to his routine with little sacrifice to sleep!
And my assignment got over; I came back to Chennai and had to go with a different customer for the next six months. After another four months, again I was sent to Mumbai. I searched for my old friends. Three of them replied they were no longer in Mumbai! I called up K – ‘Buddy where are you?’ ‘Right there in the same flat, with three other guys! We are short of one more guy – want to join?’ came the reply. I packed up my bags and went! I saw a drastic improvement – K had pasted charts and reusable whiteboards all around his room! And he was still writing – ‘K wants to go back to Chennai’ methodically!
And it has been six years now. K is married (to the same girl friend), has a kid and settled down in Mumbai! And his wife complains that he takes too much time in the toilet!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
For How long?
I happened to read this article and the truth in it pains me. One of the most cruel punishments in the human history is the 'solitary prison' - most of us could not imagine the plight of such prisoners. In my opinion being & treated as a refugee in your own country is no better than the treatment in a solitary prison! It has been fifteen long years, but still no leader in this country could dare to touch this issue. And the only reason is - minority vote bank!
Our PM Manmohan Singh sends a special convoy to meet TN's CM just as we hear about the clash between LTTE (Terrorists) and a Srilankan Army. Our local TN leaders like Vaiko & MK shed tears of blood for the Srilankan Tamils! And in the names of refugees LTTE have started their intrusion into TN. I have personally seen the amount of vigilance and security being practiced in the 'Mandapam' refugee camp. It is a free for all camp! Anybody can come in, go out - not to come back again. So many such refugees are staying outside in rented and owned houses. All said and done Jayalalithaa administered better security policies for TN. Right from the street urchins till Veerappan (including Vaiko/Nedumaaran) stopped supporting any kind of terrorism/rowdism! It looks like that the LTTE were just waiting for a change in government in TN; They started the war as soon as MK sworn in as CM in TN - they are so sure about the assistance they would receive from this land now!
Our PM & super PM are busy flagging off buses across the border defying the whole purpose of the laying a fence along LoC! Cold blooded attacks on Hindus and Hindu shrines during Hindu festivals seem to be the agenda of the Islamic terrorists nowadays. Recent Delhi market blast during Diwali, Blasts at Varanasi etc., perfectly fall into this category. But still nobody in the country has the guts to object this cross border transportation!
For every community, clan, subsect, caste, or sections of workers there is a political back up! They come to the street, burn/damage public properties, and kill innocent people to demand justice! But no one could raise a genuine concern about the majority (minority!) Hindus in this country. The moment someone talks about Hindus, he would be labeled as anti secular by the media and the Congress! It is a shame on our nation.
For how long we would survive like this?
Our PM Manmohan Singh sends a special convoy to meet TN's CM just as we hear about the clash between LTTE (Terrorists) and a Srilankan Army. Our local TN leaders like Vaiko & MK shed tears of blood for the Srilankan Tamils! And in the names of refugees LTTE have started their intrusion into TN. I have personally seen the amount of vigilance and security being practiced in the 'Mandapam' refugee camp. It is a free for all camp! Anybody can come in, go out - not to come back again. So many such refugees are staying outside in rented and owned houses. All said and done Jayalalithaa administered better security policies for TN. Right from the street urchins till Veerappan (including Vaiko/Nedumaaran) stopped supporting any kind of terrorism/rowdism! It looks like that the LTTE were just waiting for a change in government in TN; They started the war as soon as MK sworn in as CM in TN - they are so sure about the assistance they would receive from this land now!
Our PM & super PM are busy flagging off buses across the border defying the whole purpose of the laying a fence along LoC! Cold blooded attacks on Hindus and Hindu shrines during Hindu festivals seem to be the agenda of the Islamic terrorists nowadays. Recent Delhi market blast during Diwali, Blasts at Varanasi etc., perfectly fall into this category. But still nobody in the country has the guts to object this cross border transportation!
For every community, clan, subsect, caste, or sections of workers there is a political back up! They come to the street, burn/damage public properties, and kill innocent people to demand justice! But no one could raise a genuine concern about the majority (minority!) Hindus in this country. The moment someone talks about Hindus, he would be labeled as anti secular by the media and the Congress! It is a shame on our nation.
For how long we would survive like this?
Thursday, June 15, 2006
How deep are we divided?
I happened to travel to my native town, down south of Tamil Nadu, over the weekend. To travel around the city and some surrounding villages, the ‘mini bus’ is the most preferred mode in such small townships. I boarded a green painted bus. Enquired the conductor about what time would it leave. ’11.15AM’ he replied. I had another full twenty minutes to go. As I looked around, I noticed only a couple of lazy passengers like me in the bus. The bus was full of decoration – color papers, scenery snaps, a small LCD screen and a good sound box. They were playing some tamil film songs. The lyricist should be hanged – such a cheap and dirty sequencing of lines! What do they do in the censor board? Two more men in uniforms boarded the bus. Heading straight to the front side of the bus, they started conversing with the driver & conductor of our bus.
I shifted my seat closer to them, just enough to overhear what they are talking about. The talk was about the color of the bus. The bus I was in, belonged to a different owner than the other two in uniforms. As soon as Jayalalitha was sworn in as Chief Minister of TN last time, she ensured that all the ‘mini-busses’ were painted ‘Green’ – her favorite/lucky color. Before her tenure, they were sporting ‘yellow’ color – the favorite/lucky color for the then CM M Karunanidhi. Now that MK is back as CM the hot topic among these mini bus owners is about the potential government rule regarding the color change. Apparently these folks are pretty small time business people for whom repainting the buses every five years is no joke. So the conversation went like this.
Our Bus Driver: Our owner has set us very steep collection targets for the next two months. He is expecting to gain as much as possible before the government sends out the change of color memo again.
Our Bus Conductor: Also, I heard that he is planning to sell his two buses before this rule.
New Bus Driver: Even my owner is pretty much worried. Unlike your boss, mine has around 12 buses to repaint and he is discussing the same with the association.
New Bus Conductor: The politicians will not allow us to live. I am so fed up that I didn’t vote to anyone this time.
OBC: Some time back, we used to say ‘Let either Ram or Ravan rule the land. We need to worry about our bread’. But nowadays we cannot be like that because all those are left in competition are only ‘Ravans’. There are no Rams around anymore.
NBD: When is your scheduled time?OBD: Still some fifteen minutes away.
NBD (looking inside the bus): There are not many boarded. Come let us go for a coffee.
OBD: Okay. Lets go.
NBC: To OBC, let the ‘driver Inam’ go for a coffee! We belong to ‘conductor Inam’ – lets go to the other shop for a tea! (Inam – translates to ‘clan’)
I suddenly realized – how even in our day to day life we have started differentiating ourselves from others! I mean all the four of them belong to same worker community – the mini bus workmen! But still from within they felt the need to identify themselves differently! The Dravidian parties are to be blamed for this. They have first created the concept of identifying themselves to be associated with the language and call themselves as ‘Tamil Inam’. I don’t think there was such a usage in TN before the 60s! To my knowledge there was only Manidha Inam (Human Clan), Miruga Inam (Animal Clan) etc., before that. We are already divided in so many ways – Caste, Religion, Rich, Poor, North Indian, South Indian, Aryan, Dravidian etc. The politicians started a new Inam associated with the Language. Each one of the Dravidian leader claims himself to be ‘Tamil Ina Kaavalar’ – Savior of Tamil clan!
They gained mileage over the Brahmins by kindling in the ‘language’ war (against Sanskrit / Hindi later). Brahmin bashing is the main agenda of the Dravidian parties even today. Today this concept is so imbibed to our society that even the uneducated laborers in remote villages have started identifying themselves belonging to different Inams! Where is the end for these divisions? Tomorrow every working community could identify themselves belonging to different ‘Inams’ – Like Paalkaara Inam (Milkmen Clan), Vivasaayi Inam (Agriculture Clan) etc. And within Paalkaara Inam you could have ‘Yerumai Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Buffalo Milkmen Clan), ‘Pasu Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Cow Milkmen Clan) etc. Each them already have their own associations! Each of them would have their own list of grievances! If they manage to show their vote bank to any of these politicians, am sure they would encourage such divisive thought process! Just thinking about the potential threat of such divisive thought process, scares me!
So do I sound stupid? May be not – ten years from now!
I shifted my seat closer to them, just enough to overhear what they are talking about. The talk was about the color of the bus. The bus I was in, belonged to a different owner than the other two in uniforms. As soon as Jayalalitha was sworn in as Chief Minister of TN last time, she ensured that all the ‘mini-busses’ were painted ‘Green’ – her favorite/lucky color. Before her tenure, they were sporting ‘yellow’ color – the favorite/lucky color for the then CM M Karunanidhi. Now that MK is back as CM the hot topic among these mini bus owners is about the potential government rule regarding the color change. Apparently these folks are pretty small time business people for whom repainting the buses every five years is no joke. So the conversation went like this.
Our Bus Driver: Our owner has set us very steep collection targets for the next two months. He is expecting to gain as much as possible before the government sends out the change of color memo again.
Our Bus Conductor: Also, I heard that he is planning to sell his two buses before this rule.
New Bus Driver: Even my owner is pretty much worried. Unlike your boss, mine has around 12 buses to repaint and he is discussing the same with the association.
New Bus Conductor: The politicians will not allow us to live. I am so fed up that I didn’t vote to anyone this time.
OBC: Some time back, we used to say ‘Let either Ram or Ravan rule the land. We need to worry about our bread’. But nowadays we cannot be like that because all those are left in competition are only ‘Ravans’. There are no Rams around anymore.
NBD: When is your scheduled time?OBD: Still some fifteen minutes away.
NBD (looking inside the bus): There are not many boarded. Come let us go for a coffee.
OBD: Okay. Lets go.
NBC: To OBC, let the ‘driver Inam’ go for a coffee! We belong to ‘conductor Inam’ – lets go to the other shop for a tea! (Inam – translates to ‘clan’)
I suddenly realized – how even in our day to day life we have started differentiating ourselves from others! I mean all the four of them belong to same worker community – the mini bus workmen! But still from within they felt the need to identify themselves differently! The Dravidian parties are to be blamed for this. They have first created the concept of identifying themselves to be associated with the language and call themselves as ‘Tamil Inam’. I don’t think there was such a usage in TN before the 60s! To my knowledge there was only Manidha Inam (Human Clan), Miruga Inam (Animal Clan) etc., before that. We are already divided in so many ways – Caste, Religion, Rich, Poor, North Indian, South Indian, Aryan, Dravidian etc. The politicians started a new Inam associated with the Language. Each one of the Dravidian leader claims himself to be ‘Tamil Ina Kaavalar’ – Savior of Tamil clan!
They gained mileage over the Brahmins by kindling in the ‘language’ war (against Sanskrit / Hindi later). Brahmin bashing is the main agenda of the Dravidian parties even today. Today this concept is so imbibed to our society that even the uneducated laborers in remote villages have started identifying themselves belonging to different Inams! Where is the end for these divisions? Tomorrow every working community could identify themselves belonging to different ‘Inams’ – Like Paalkaara Inam (Milkmen Clan), Vivasaayi Inam (Agriculture Clan) etc. And within Paalkaara Inam you could have ‘Yerumai Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Buffalo Milkmen Clan), ‘Pasu Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Cow Milkmen Clan) etc. Each them already have their own associations! Each of them would have their own list of grievances! If they manage to show their vote bank to any of these politicians, am sure they would encourage such divisive thought process! Just thinking about the potential threat of such divisive thought process, scares me!
So do I sound stupid? May be not – ten years from now!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Yugas & Avatars
I was bored with my normal routine. I decided to dig back some of those books that lie around from time immemorial at my grandpa’s place. Indeed they are not English novels – but are books related to Hinduism. I was reading some material on the Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu. A lot of questions were asked and some answers were given. I also read about the four Yugas that Hinduism talks about and their time span! The symmetric pattern of the information surprised me, to say it in a minimalist way! And with some retrofit analysis I had even more surprises! (And by Google, I found that some or all of this information is already available on the net – but what prevents me from presenting them again? After all this is my own blog!)
Time Span of the four Yugas:
Krita Yuga – 17,28,000 years (Kri – four times kali yuga)
Threta Yuga – 12,96,000 years (Thre – three times kali yuga)
Dwapara Yuga – 8,64,000 years ( Dwa – two times kali yuga)
Kali yuga – 4,32,000 years
A total of 43,20,000 years constitute a Maha Yuga!
Ten Incarnations (Avatars) of Lord Vishnu:
The first FOUR Avatars happened in Kritha Yuga – Matsya, Koorma, Varaaha and Nrisimha
The next THREE Avatars happened in Treta Yuga – Vaaman, Parasuraama and Sri Rama
The next TWO Avatars happened in Dwapara Yuga – Balaraama and Krishna
The next ONE Avatar will happen in Kali Yuga – Kalki
Can we see the symmetry between the Time Span of Yugas and the number of Incarnations happened in every Yuga?
I have heard in so many instances, that how each and every invention of modern day science is already hinted in our Puraanas and Vedas. Some staunch believers even claim that everything is derived from Vedas and there is nothing that is available on this universe that is not touched by the Vedas. As per the order of Incarnations of Lord Vishnu, can we relate to modern day evolution?
First Avatar – Matsya – Creatures that live solely in water;
Next Avatar – Koorma – Creatures that could live both in water and land (amphibian);
Next Avatar – Varaaha – Creatures that solely live on land (ofcourse with swimming ability);
Next Avatar – NaraSimha – The half-lion and half-human – a stage between Homo sapiens and animals (Tiryaks?);
Next Avatar – Vaamana – The Homo sapiens with short stature;
Next Avatar – Parasurama – The rough and tough human (Rama with the axe);
Next Avatar – Sri Rama – The perfect civilized human (Rama with a bow & noble practices);
Next Avatar – BalaRama – The human with occupational skills (Rama with the plough – agriculture is his occupation?)
Next Avatar – Sri Krishna – The Superhuman!
Final Avatar – Kalki – The apocalyptic (The one who would end this Mahayuga!)
We can assume that during each of the avatar’s time span the previous avatars’ creatures existed. For example, during amphibian days, water dwelling creatures lived. Extrapolating this to Sri Rama’s period, we can assume that creatures from Narasimha’s time existed(Hanuman, Jambavan etc.,). I am not an expert in the modern day evolution theory and so I should read more towards that to understand the link.
Another interesting aspect I learnt is on the average life span of the creatures that lived in different yugas and the average dimensions of them!
Safely assuming the average life span of human is around 50 years (across the earth) as of today. Going by the same symmetric math:
Average life span of creatures in Kali Yuga – 50 years;
Average life span of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 100 years; (Twice)
Average life span of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 150 years; (Thrice)
Average life span of creatures in Krita Yuga – 200 years; (Four times)
Assuming the average dimension of human today is around 5.7 - 6ft / 60 – 70 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Kali Yuga – 6 ft / 60 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 12 ft / 120 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 18 ft / 180 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Krita Yuga – 24 ft / 240 Kgs;
The most realistic example of a life form from Krita Yuga could be the Giant Sea tortoises (Koorma avatar)! Even today they weigh more than 250 Kgs and live for more than 200 years! Modern day scientists date their existence for millions of years! Though a retro-fit I just cannot believe that such a theory could exist from time immemorial!
May be I should read more to understand things better. I am sure there are missing pieces between and we can argue on a lot of them. But I would only attribute them for our inability to read/interpret them in the right form. That is the prime point of Hinduism – It shows us the ways and allows us to argue and decide what the best is? For example one might argue the Vaamana avatar in Treta Yuga – short stature does not go with the dimension assumptions stated – But what was the definition of ‘short’ in those days? There is no end to these arguments. Everything depends on Trust. I trust Hinduism! I feel by just arguing why it could not be rather than why it could be and by not providing enough attention to our such treasures ‘May be we are missing a lot …’!
Time Span of the four Yugas:
Krita Yuga – 17,28,000 years (Kri – four times kali yuga)
Threta Yuga – 12,96,000 years (Thre – three times kali yuga)
Dwapara Yuga – 8,64,000 years ( Dwa – two times kali yuga)
Kali yuga – 4,32,000 years
A total of 43,20,000 years constitute a Maha Yuga!
Ten Incarnations (Avatars) of Lord Vishnu:
The first FOUR Avatars happened in Kritha Yuga – Matsya, Koorma, Varaaha and Nrisimha
The next THREE Avatars happened in Treta Yuga – Vaaman, Parasuraama and Sri Rama
The next TWO Avatars happened in Dwapara Yuga – Balaraama and Krishna
The next ONE Avatar will happen in Kali Yuga – Kalki
Can we see the symmetry between the Time Span of Yugas and the number of Incarnations happened in every Yuga?
I have heard in so many instances, that how each and every invention of modern day science is already hinted in our Puraanas and Vedas. Some staunch believers even claim that everything is derived from Vedas and there is nothing that is available on this universe that is not touched by the Vedas. As per the order of Incarnations of Lord Vishnu, can we relate to modern day evolution?
First Avatar – Matsya – Creatures that live solely in water;
Next Avatar – Koorma – Creatures that could live both in water and land (amphibian);
Next Avatar – Varaaha – Creatures that solely live on land (ofcourse with swimming ability);
Next Avatar – NaraSimha – The half-lion and half-human – a stage between Homo sapiens and animals (Tiryaks?);
Next Avatar – Vaamana – The Homo sapiens with short stature;
Next Avatar – Parasurama – The rough and tough human (Rama with the axe);
Next Avatar – Sri Rama – The perfect civilized human (Rama with a bow & noble practices);
Next Avatar – BalaRama – The human with occupational skills (Rama with the plough – agriculture is his occupation?)
Next Avatar – Sri Krishna – The Superhuman!
Final Avatar – Kalki – The apocalyptic (The one who would end this Mahayuga!)
We can assume that during each of the avatar’s time span the previous avatars’ creatures existed. For example, during amphibian days, water dwelling creatures lived. Extrapolating this to Sri Rama’s period, we can assume that creatures from Narasimha’s time existed(Hanuman, Jambavan etc.,). I am not an expert in the modern day evolution theory and so I should read more towards that to understand the link.
Another interesting aspect I learnt is on the average life span of the creatures that lived in different yugas and the average dimensions of them!
Safely assuming the average life span of human is around 50 years (across the earth) as of today. Going by the same symmetric math:
Average life span of creatures in Kali Yuga – 50 years;
Average life span of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 100 years; (Twice)
Average life span of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 150 years; (Thrice)
Average life span of creatures in Krita Yuga – 200 years; (Four times)
Assuming the average dimension of human today is around 5.7 - 6ft / 60 – 70 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Kali Yuga – 6 ft / 60 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 12 ft / 120 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 18 ft / 180 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Krita Yuga – 24 ft / 240 Kgs;
The most realistic example of a life form from Krita Yuga could be the Giant Sea tortoises (Koorma avatar)! Even today they weigh more than 250 Kgs and live for more than 200 years! Modern day scientists date their existence for millions of years! Though a retro-fit I just cannot believe that such a theory could exist from time immemorial!
May be I should read more to understand things better. I am sure there are missing pieces between and we can argue on a lot of them. But I would only attribute them for our inability to read/interpret them in the right form. That is the prime point of Hinduism – It shows us the ways and allows us to argue and decide what the best is? For example one might argue the Vaamana avatar in Treta Yuga – short stature does not go with the dimension assumptions stated – But what was the definition of ‘short’ in those days? There is no end to these arguments. Everything depends on Trust. I trust Hinduism! I feel by just arguing why it could not be rather than why it could be and by not providing enough attention to our such treasures ‘May be we are missing a lot …’!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
You don't belong here...
It was a beautiful Sunday Morning! The previous night was good as well. I watched a Chinese Kung-fu movie and laughed my heart out – Now why that strange look on your face?? I am not an intellectual like you. I enjoy stupid and poor jokes. So what is your problem? I had a nice sleep. I decided to go on a lazy drive through my most favorite road that stretches along side a beautiful beach.
I played my pet music on my CD player. Lazing around at 20Km/hr with a cool breeze and a beautiful morning sun – I felt heaven. I just completed one round and turned around for the next. Suddenly I heard the sound of an air plane – near, very near to me. I gently leaped out of my window and looked at the sky – Nothing to spot! That sound faded away! ‘An air plane could not get past this fast’ I thought. Alright, back to normal “enjoy your drive” – went ahead with my second round – same corner to take a ‘U’ turn – Aha! There it is. I heard that air plane sound again! It faded again in very quick time. No, this cannot happen. I pulled over my car. Stepped out, scanned the sky thoroughly – no trace of any plane. I just stood there for the next five minutes. Slowly I heard the same sound at a distance. It came near – I spotted a motor bike speeding across a cross lane. The tweaks he had done to his silencer made such a noise! I strolled down that lane – waiting for that guy to come back. He came and I stopped him. Under the helmet I could find my good old friend! After initial surprises:
Me: What are you trying to do in this lane?
He: Don’t you know that we have our mid night moto races at the beach roads? Am preparing for that.
Me: Whatz the deal with your silencer? Don’t you feel it pollutes?
He: Hell with it! Do you know that I didn’t fix a horn to my beauty?
Me: You have an unmarried sister; you are yet to find a job; and your dad is old enough to retire. What do you gain by these races?
He: Money, fame & girls.
Me: Money fine, fame – sort of okay and where did the girls come into this?
He: The winner gets a date with the most beautiful girl in our group – and we elect the best!
Me: And you spend the money you just won on that b**** the same day? Is it worth the risk? What drives you to be so fast?
He: Speed thrills youth! Speed is the identity of youth;
Me: Am of your same age and Speed does not thrill me. Better than me I bother about others on the road!
He: You have always been like that! You are never ‘man’ish!
Me: What do you mean? I have a good job; married; have a kid; am settled & take care of my family; so what is the big ‘man’ish thing you have that I don’t?
He: See; Marriage has spoilt you; you are an old bugger now; you don’t belong here; And do you know that according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity time slows down on fast-moving folks?
Me: So?
He: If time slows down on me wrt old buggers like you, I would stay young you idiot! I am preparing myself for that. Now would you mind moving your butt out of my way?
Me: Okay bud; but be careful…
He: You better watch ya back; and don’t try to act smart by hinting the cops!
He left with that air plane sound.
Stop! Einstein’s TOR is for space travelers; at a speed nearing the speed of light (some 200000 miles / sec) which no one has achieved and could achieve atleast in the next hundred years! “Next time I get to meet him, I will explain him this” said to myself and I returned to my car;
As I started my drive, I heard a noise of some ten planes coming back and crossing through me! A group of my friend a-likes zipped past my car!
I was annoyed – “You idiots” – I yelled! ‘Thank you’ promptly came back the reply! I continued my drive – I thought – May be; my friend was right. I am shy to risks; I have huge responsibilities to my family; I care for my status in the society; I bother about tomorrow; I feel heavy at heart; I have confined myself to a society boundry; I feel old.
They don’t; they love risks; they don’t bother about tomorrow; they feel light; they enjoy what they do; they want to cross boundaries; just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull!
‘I don’t belong there…’ I mumbled without my conscious!
I played my pet music on my CD player. Lazing around at 20Km/hr with a cool breeze and a beautiful morning sun – I felt heaven. I just completed one round and turned around for the next. Suddenly I heard the sound of an air plane – near, very near to me. I gently leaped out of my window and looked at the sky – Nothing to spot! That sound faded away! ‘An air plane could not get past this fast’ I thought. Alright, back to normal “enjoy your drive” – went ahead with my second round – same corner to take a ‘U’ turn – Aha! There it is. I heard that air plane sound again! It faded again in very quick time. No, this cannot happen. I pulled over my car. Stepped out, scanned the sky thoroughly – no trace of any plane. I just stood there for the next five minutes. Slowly I heard the same sound at a distance. It came near – I spotted a motor bike speeding across a cross lane. The tweaks he had done to his silencer made such a noise! I strolled down that lane – waiting for that guy to come back. He came and I stopped him. Under the helmet I could find my good old friend! After initial surprises:
Me: What are you trying to do in this lane?
He: Don’t you know that we have our mid night moto races at the beach roads? Am preparing for that.
Me: Whatz the deal with your silencer? Don’t you feel it pollutes?
He: Hell with it! Do you know that I didn’t fix a horn to my beauty?
Me: You have an unmarried sister; you are yet to find a job; and your dad is old enough to retire. What do you gain by these races?
He: Money, fame & girls.
Me: Money fine, fame – sort of okay and where did the girls come into this?
He: The winner gets a date with the most beautiful girl in our group – and we elect the best!
Me: And you spend the money you just won on that b**** the same day? Is it worth the risk? What drives you to be so fast?
He: Speed thrills youth! Speed is the identity of youth;
Me: Am of your same age and Speed does not thrill me. Better than me I bother about others on the road!
He: You have always been like that! You are never ‘man’ish!
Me: What do you mean? I have a good job; married; have a kid; am settled & take care of my family; so what is the big ‘man’ish thing you have that I don’t?
He: See; Marriage has spoilt you; you are an old bugger now; you don’t belong here; And do you know that according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity time slows down on fast-moving folks?
Me: So?
He: If time slows down on me wrt old buggers like you, I would stay young you idiot! I am preparing myself for that. Now would you mind moving your butt out of my way?
Me: Okay bud; but be careful…
He: You better watch ya back; and don’t try to act smart by hinting the cops!
He left with that air plane sound.
Stop! Einstein’s TOR is for space travelers; at a speed nearing the speed of light (some 200000 miles / sec) which no one has achieved and could achieve atleast in the next hundred years! “Next time I get to meet him, I will explain him this” said to myself and I returned to my car;
As I started my drive, I heard a noise of some ten planes coming back and crossing through me! A group of my friend a-likes zipped past my car!
I was annoyed – “You idiots” – I yelled! ‘Thank you’ promptly came back the reply! I continued my drive – I thought – May be; my friend was right. I am shy to risks; I have huge responsibilities to my family; I care for my status in the society; I bother about tomorrow; I feel heavy at heart; I have confined myself to a society boundry; I feel old.
They don’t; they love risks; they don’t bother about tomorrow; they feel light; they enjoy what they do; they want to cross boundaries; just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull!
‘I don’t belong there…’ I mumbled without my conscious!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Reservation – A Boon or a Curse? (Part 2)
Reservation as a Boon
Do we need reservation? My answer is yes, but I have another angle to it. The government should not reserve seats, promotions, cut-off marks etc, based on Caste - but they should reserve ‘Funds’! Only about 2% of GDP is spent on education in India. This is the fundamental problem. The government aided institutions are awfully short of funds and hence the quality of infrastructure, studies, students, staff, teachers and professors are awfully below par! The government should reserve about 15 – 20% of GDP towards education in the next five years. Majority of this chunk should be spent on improving the quality of primary education in the country. Create a body consisting of all the visionaries, industrial leaders, academicals and other entrepreneurs to maintain the fund. Probably this body could be headed by the President! There should be no other political interference to this body. This body would become the ‘Shapers of Young India’. A mass campaign on importance of primary education should be unleashed across all the villages.
(1) Make education (atleast up to class XII) compulsory for every child born in the country; • Invest on primary schooling infrastructure
• Invest on generating good primary school teachers
• Provide good compensation packages for these teachers
• Reserve funds to provide incentives to the parents who are below the poverty line but still are committed to educate their children
(2) Provide education free till class XII for all the children from families below poverty line. Impose minimal fee structure in the private institutes of education for the children from families above poverty line.
(3) Provide all the aides for education (books, papers, Compass boxes etc) free to all the children below poverty line.
(4) Revisit and revise the entire curriculum – the current curriculum does not produce proud citizens of India! The McCauley’s system of education has killed the pride of being an Indian! Our students lack on self-belief – the fundamental quality to succeed. The overall standard of our educational system should be revised according the modern day’s expectations still preserving our country’s culture!
(5) The government wants to implement reservation across all the private institutes and concerns as well. My suggestion would be to pass a legislation that would provide for all the private companies and institutes to allocate 0.5% of their profits to the national educational fund! This way we ensure that they pay for what they get from this country. They participate in building the next generation. Spare them from Caste based reservations which could potentially kill their existence! Another variation would be to give tax exemption to the donations given to this fund from any body.
(6) Abolish all kinds of reservations based on caste in all the government bodies, private institutes at one go! This would bring back all those people who have grown in the system through reservations to ground reality and make them compete with the rest. After all, they all are educated, would have progressed to good positions (already gained that extra mile over the rest) and so it is fair to expect them to compete the race. The main motive is to enhance the current generation’s productivity which is at soaring worst as of today!
(7) Beyond class XII it should only be a level playing field. Every seat for higher education would be based on Merit! The cut offs would be the same for all. The government would aid the studies of the winners from below poverty line families at this level!
This outline could be built upon and explained to details further. The first step is the toughest - determining the population below poverty line. But with modern days' technology tracking abilities, it should not be an impossible one.
Even today we blame it on our ancestors – the culprits who have created inequality in the society. With the current reservation policy we still do the same! We are trying to right the wrong by committing another wrong! A hundred years from now, you would have representatives of current days’ FC fighting to preserve their reservations!
Overall, our reservation system should be progressive, forward looking and focus on building our country as the best among the rest! This kind of reservation would truly be a boon! The onus is on us to leave our children a better place to live! Do our politicians have IT in them?
Do we need reservation? My answer is yes, but I have another angle to it. The government should not reserve seats, promotions, cut-off marks etc, based on Caste - but they should reserve ‘Funds’! Only about 2% of GDP is spent on education in India. This is the fundamental problem. The government aided institutions are awfully short of funds and hence the quality of infrastructure, studies, students, staff, teachers and professors are awfully below par! The government should reserve about 15 – 20% of GDP towards education in the next five years. Majority of this chunk should be spent on improving the quality of primary education in the country. Create a body consisting of all the visionaries, industrial leaders, academicals and other entrepreneurs to maintain the fund. Probably this body could be headed by the President! There should be no other political interference to this body. This body would become the ‘Shapers of Young India’. A mass campaign on importance of primary education should be unleashed across all the villages.
(1) Make education (atleast up to class XII) compulsory for every child born in the country; • Invest on primary schooling infrastructure
• Invest on generating good primary school teachers
• Provide good compensation packages for these teachers
• Reserve funds to provide incentives to the parents who are below the poverty line but still are committed to educate their children
(2) Provide education free till class XII for all the children from families below poverty line. Impose minimal fee structure in the private institutes of education for the children from families above poverty line.
(3) Provide all the aides for education (books, papers, Compass boxes etc) free to all the children below poverty line.
(4) Revisit and revise the entire curriculum – the current curriculum does not produce proud citizens of India! The McCauley’s system of education has killed the pride of being an Indian! Our students lack on self-belief – the fundamental quality to succeed. The overall standard of our educational system should be revised according the modern day’s expectations still preserving our country’s culture!
(5) The government wants to implement reservation across all the private institutes and concerns as well. My suggestion would be to pass a legislation that would provide for all the private companies and institutes to allocate 0.5% of their profits to the national educational fund! This way we ensure that they pay for what they get from this country. They participate in building the next generation. Spare them from Caste based reservations which could potentially kill their existence! Another variation would be to give tax exemption to the donations given to this fund from any body.
(6) Abolish all kinds of reservations based on caste in all the government bodies, private institutes at one go! This would bring back all those people who have grown in the system through reservations to ground reality and make them compete with the rest. After all, they all are educated, would have progressed to good positions (already gained that extra mile over the rest) and so it is fair to expect them to compete the race. The main motive is to enhance the current generation’s productivity which is at soaring worst as of today!
(7) Beyond class XII it should only be a level playing field. Every seat for higher education would be based on Merit! The cut offs would be the same for all. The government would aid the studies of the winners from below poverty line families at this level!
This outline could be built upon and explained to details further. The first step is the toughest - determining the population below poverty line. But with modern days' technology tracking abilities, it should not be an impossible one.
Even today we blame it on our ancestors – the culprits who have created inequality in the society. With the current reservation policy we still do the same! We are trying to right the wrong by committing another wrong! A hundred years from now, you would have representatives of current days’ FC fighting to preserve their reservations!
Overall, our reservation system should be progressive, forward looking and focus on building our country as the best among the rest! This kind of reservation would truly be a boon! The onus is on us to leave our children a better place to live! Do our politicians have IT in them?
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Those Nostalgic Years - Part 3
A New Neighbor
The days were passing by as usual. During rainy season we made paper boats, set up traps to capture frogs, cut irrigation canals for all the coconut trees in the backyard, got terrified by occasional appearance of snakes at homes or that swam along with us in the river, gathered as a group to the Thinnais and enjoyed the drizzles, felt the freshness in the air, loved the looks of everything cleansed by rains… K was enjoying unquestionable supremacy in everything we did. The season changed – summer came by and along with it a family of bank officer moved into our street. It was a cute family – parents, one girl and a boy. Boy was of our age and the girl was elder to us. Neighborhood aunts were saying that they had come from Madras (now Chennai) and the person was a big bank official. The presence of a ‘pattanatthu’ girl attracted many of our elder companions on the street. They helped to unload things from the truck and unpack things. We were watching eagerly to check if any stuff would be of our interest – since they came from Madras!
In those days, many of us would have seen only the trains that left for Madras from Tenkasi Junction! Infact, we got to see trains only once in a blue moon - station was far away from our place, and we had no reason to venture out in that direction. Watching trains used to be a fascinating experience with all of us standing in a line along the track and waving our hands in joy! We placed our ears on the track trying to sense the arrival of the train! One more reason we waited for the summer vacation was the new set of people those who would come to spend their holidays at Tenkasi with their grand parents! They always had some surprises to us! Like some one would show us a Bambaram of a different shape, someone would show us a toy train that runs on a track, a boat that circles in a tub of water when a lamp was lit in it or it would be a gun that would shoot plastic bullets etc. We had seen only our Diwali guns that we use to burst ‘caps’. Most of us infact had only a screw with two washers to burst the caps – could not afford to buy a gun!
We were watching the boy – we didn’t speak to him at the first sight as naturally we were shy to strangers. The next day as we gathered around, the boy came out with his mom! His mom introduced him to us as S and he will be studying in our own school – we all should be friends from that day! K was the boldest to greet S to our gang, introduced him again that S came from Madras. We all shook hands and K explained him about our culture. The games we played etc. It was a season for ‘Kitti pul (Gilli)’ and Golis (glass marbles). S had never seen such games and K assumed the role of a coach immediately. All was going well and slowly S became one of us.
S struggled with most of our games – but he would accept everything with a smile! He showed us some photographs of Madras!
S had some secrets as well! He taught us how to make candles!! As per the process, all of us would bring the ‘almost’ finished candles from our homes! Some of us would go around the church to find some or scrape the remains of wax left in the windows / door steps! During afternoons’ we gathered in the terrace of S’s home. S would bring a kerosene lamp and an old vessel. We put all the candles into it and melt them. We collected all types of ‘lids’ of bottles as moulds! Or we bent scrap metal into different shapes to make the moulds! We poured the melt candle wax into these moulds with one person hanging the ‘Wick’ into the moulds as we pour the wax – the Wicks (Thiris) were stolen from the temple/homes or made of old cloths finely cut using scissors! We allowed them to dry for some time – made holes from the top to allow some space for air. Again filled those with wax melt and allowed them to dry. After about an hour, we would pull the substance out of the moulds to get our version of candles ready! We sold these candles for 25paise per piece in the street! Right then it was so much fun and we enjoyed it thoroughly!
S had a different hobby from ours – collection of stamps. He had a wide variety of stamps from different countries. He told that stamp collection is quite common in Madras. We helped him to assort them and create albums. We gave him all the stamps that we could get from the posts/letters that came to our respective homes. S also taught us games like Chess & Trade. We taught him games like ‘aadupuli aattam’ & ‘Pallaanguzhi’. We showed him the ‘Chozhis’ (shells) that were used to play Pallanguzhi. He showed us a big shell wherein his name was engraved! He showed his father’s gold tipped ‘Hero’ pen and how to fill ink to it. We had traditionally seen only the ‘fountain’ pens which literally fountains ink all around them! His father’s watch had a ‘calculator’ built in! S had a lot of comic books at his disposal. Till then we had been introduced only to the ‘amar chitra kathas’ kinds of comics. The books that S had were of different breed – they had Superman, Batman, HeMan etc. Personally I preferred our own amar chitra kathas to these, but many of my other friends were so excited to read those books! They had a big ‘BUSH’ tape recorder in which he played some Hindi film songs which we had never heard of. S had many surprises to us! K and S were becoming best of friends!
… to be continued …
The days were passing by as usual. During rainy season we made paper boats, set up traps to capture frogs, cut irrigation canals for all the coconut trees in the backyard, got terrified by occasional appearance of snakes at homes or that swam along with us in the river, gathered as a group to the Thinnais and enjoyed the drizzles, felt the freshness in the air, loved the looks of everything cleansed by rains… K was enjoying unquestionable supremacy in everything we did. The season changed – summer came by and along with it a family of bank officer moved into our street. It was a cute family – parents, one girl and a boy. Boy was of our age and the girl was elder to us. Neighborhood aunts were saying that they had come from Madras (now Chennai) and the person was a big bank official. The presence of a ‘pattanatthu’ girl attracted many of our elder companions on the street. They helped to unload things from the truck and unpack things. We were watching eagerly to check if any stuff would be of our interest – since they came from Madras!
In those days, many of us would have seen only the trains that left for Madras from Tenkasi Junction! Infact, we got to see trains only once in a blue moon - station was far away from our place, and we had no reason to venture out in that direction. Watching trains used to be a fascinating experience with all of us standing in a line along the track and waving our hands in joy! We placed our ears on the track trying to sense the arrival of the train! One more reason we waited for the summer vacation was the new set of people those who would come to spend their holidays at Tenkasi with their grand parents! They always had some surprises to us! Like some one would show us a Bambaram of a different shape, someone would show us a toy train that runs on a track, a boat that circles in a tub of water when a lamp was lit in it or it would be a gun that would shoot plastic bullets etc. We had seen only our Diwali guns that we use to burst ‘caps’. Most of us infact had only a screw with two washers to burst the caps – could not afford to buy a gun!
We were watching the boy – we didn’t speak to him at the first sight as naturally we were shy to strangers. The next day as we gathered around, the boy came out with his mom! His mom introduced him to us as S and he will be studying in our own school – we all should be friends from that day! K was the boldest to greet S to our gang, introduced him again that S came from Madras. We all shook hands and K explained him about our culture. The games we played etc. It was a season for ‘Kitti pul (Gilli)’ and Golis (glass marbles). S had never seen such games and K assumed the role of a coach immediately. All was going well and slowly S became one of us.
S struggled with most of our games – but he would accept everything with a smile! He showed us some photographs of Madras!
S had some secrets as well! He taught us how to make candles!! As per the process, all of us would bring the ‘almost’ finished candles from our homes! Some of us would go around the church to find some or scrape the remains of wax left in the windows / door steps! During afternoons’ we gathered in the terrace of S’s home. S would bring a kerosene lamp and an old vessel. We put all the candles into it and melt them. We collected all types of ‘lids’ of bottles as moulds! Or we bent scrap metal into different shapes to make the moulds! We poured the melt candle wax into these moulds with one person hanging the ‘Wick’ into the moulds as we pour the wax – the Wicks (Thiris) were stolen from the temple/homes or made of old cloths finely cut using scissors! We allowed them to dry for some time – made holes from the top to allow some space for air. Again filled those with wax melt and allowed them to dry. After about an hour, we would pull the substance out of the moulds to get our version of candles ready! We sold these candles for 25paise per piece in the street! Right then it was so much fun and we enjoyed it thoroughly!
S had a different hobby from ours – collection of stamps. He had a wide variety of stamps from different countries. He told that stamp collection is quite common in Madras. We helped him to assort them and create albums. We gave him all the stamps that we could get from the posts/letters that came to our respective homes. S also taught us games like Chess & Trade. We taught him games like ‘aadupuli aattam’ & ‘Pallaanguzhi’. We showed him the ‘Chozhis’ (shells) that were used to play Pallanguzhi. He showed us a big shell wherein his name was engraved! He showed his father’s gold tipped ‘Hero’ pen and how to fill ink to it. We had traditionally seen only the ‘fountain’ pens which literally fountains ink all around them! His father’s watch had a ‘calculator’ built in! S had a lot of comic books at his disposal. Till then we had been introduced only to the ‘amar chitra kathas’ kinds of comics. The books that S had were of different breed – they had Superman, Batman, HeMan etc. Personally I preferred our own amar chitra kathas to these, but many of my other friends were so excited to read those books! They had a big ‘BUSH’ tape recorder in which he played some Hindi film songs which we had never heard of. S had many surprises to us! K and S were becoming best of friends!
… to be continued …
Friday, June 02, 2006
Reservation - A Boon or a Curse? (Part 1)
A lot has been talked about the proposed 27% reservation in higher studies by the UPA government. Each one of us has an opinion about this topic. Debating who is right or wrong would remain a debate – with no real solutions. Most of us still are debating the problem. What we should really be debating is on the Solutions offered. Some of the gurus have come out with some complex formulae that would only worsen the situation. The solutions offered should be simple; easy to Implement; should treat every community equally; but should not based on caste!
Why many us are not opposing reservation for SC/ST? A little deep dive would reveal that still majority of this clan remain poor. Most of them cannot even afford their daily breads; Education does not even find a place in their priority list. In spite of having reservations for about 60 years for SC/ST – roughly translates to atleast three generations - still majority of SC/ST remain poor. The fundamental question to be raised is ‘WHY?’. The simple reasoning any sane person could make is that still for most of them education does not figure in their priority list.
History has shown us many a ways a community gained supremacy over the rest. The most common element in all those instances is that they had a ‘leader’ with vision. This is the part that is missing in India. Tell me one leader who belongs to this clan who is a visionary in the past two decades? The most prominent and probably the only name comes to my mind is Ambedkar! And he is legacy now. At the ground level these people have seen some among them growing rich in unethical ways – politics being the primary culprit. Most of them want to emulate their leaders to become rich quickly. Why wait and slog for sixteen years to gain a degree and then again slog to find a job? Education helps any person to look at rationales. Since most of them still are un-educated, their so called leaders could influence them with short term surprises – like free blah.
Another sad episode to observe would be on the school/college drop outs. Across India in all the institutes, the 22.5% of seats reserved for SC/ST remain under utilized! The dropouts could again be attributed to the misguided youth in this community. Youth look for quick money. When they reach colleges or premier institutes, they get to move with a crowd that looks so alien to them. Fear occupies their mind about their ability to compete with this group. They have come through to this level with lower levels of scores. They lack self-respect and self-confidence! Because right from their schooling their ability to compete with the best are not nurtured. Instead the government has put a ‘cap’ for their ability! With the current educational system and the loop holes available, anybody could reach those targets without much of a fuss! They are so spoilt by the aids of government that they are complacent and hence brittle. Once cornered any cat would fight back – so are these students! They develop anger over the society! They become emotionally challenged and aggressive. They become easy preys for the local leaders!
Following a local leader and participating in political in-fights fetch them good money. Many aspire to be the next leader. They quit studies in the middle to back their political leaders! Or all it takes is a family mishap – an earning member perishes – and these students are pushed to earn bread for their family. They become easy preys as well!
On the other hand, the school dropouts could be mostly attributed to poverty to the extreme! Their parents need to migrate for their living. Finding a job in the new place and a place to live would occupy their agenda. Children’s education remains a distant dream for them! Government does not bother about these basic socio-economic issues.
All these indicate that the existing policy has fundamental flaws! It does not address the root of the problem. So we can safely decide the current policy is a curse and any further enhancement to the existing policy would only ensure graveyard for ethics and morality in the society. Government need to think towards converting this curse to a Boon. How it could be done? I have my own suggestions; there are many a scholars in this country. Consult them; Ideas are aplenty – Who would implement? Who would bring the change? Only time will answer.
... to be continued ...
Why many us are not opposing reservation for SC/ST? A little deep dive would reveal that still majority of this clan remain poor. Most of them cannot even afford their daily breads; Education does not even find a place in their priority list. In spite of having reservations for about 60 years for SC/ST – roughly translates to atleast three generations - still majority of SC/ST remain poor. The fundamental question to be raised is ‘WHY?’. The simple reasoning any sane person could make is that still for most of them education does not figure in their priority list.
History has shown us many a ways a community gained supremacy over the rest. The most common element in all those instances is that they had a ‘leader’ with vision. This is the part that is missing in India. Tell me one leader who belongs to this clan who is a visionary in the past two decades? The most prominent and probably the only name comes to my mind is Ambedkar! And he is legacy now. At the ground level these people have seen some among them growing rich in unethical ways – politics being the primary culprit. Most of them want to emulate their leaders to become rich quickly. Why wait and slog for sixteen years to gain a degree and then again slog to find a job? Education helps any person to look at rationales. Since most of them still are un-educated, their so called leaders could influence them with short term surprises – like free blah.
Another sad episode to observe would be on the school/college drop outs. Across India in all the institutes, the 22.5% of seats reserved for SC/ST remain under utilized! The dropouts could again be attributed to the misguided youth in this community. Youth look for quick money. When they reach colleges or premier institutes, they get to move with a crowd that looks so alien to them. Fear occupies their mind about their ability to compete with this group. They have come through to this level with lower levels of scores. They lack self-respect and self-confidence! Because right from their schooling their ability to compete with the best are not nurtured. Instead the government has put a ‘cap’ for their ability! With the current educational system and the loop holes available, anybody could reach those targets without much of a fuss! They are so spoilt by the aids of government that they are complacent and hence brittle. Once cornered any cat would fight back – so are these students! They develop anger over the society! They become emotionally challenged and aggressive. They become easy preys for the local leaders!
Following a local leader and participating in political in-fights fetch them good money. Many aspire to be the next leader. They quit studies in the middle to back their political leaders! Or all it takes is a family mishap – an earning member perishes – and these students are pushed to earn bread for their family. They become easy preys as well!
On the other hand, the school dropouts could be mostly attributed to poverty to the extreme! Their parents need to migrate for their living. Finding a job in the new place and a place to live would occupy their agenda. Children’s education remains a distant dream for them! Government does not bother about these basic socio-economic issues.
All these indicate that the existing policy has fundamental flaws! It does not address the root of the problem. So we can safely decide the current policy is a curse and any further enhancement to the existing policy would only ensure graveyard for ethics and morality in the society. Government need to think towards converting this curse to a Boon. How it could be done? I have my own suggestions; there are many a scholars in this country. Consult them; Ideas are aplenty – Who would implement? Who would bring the change? Only time will answer.
... to be continued ...
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