Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bala.

Bala has won the national award for best direction .I am sure that most people who saw his film 'Nan Kadavul' would have been repulsed by the stark depiction of human deformities without any frills or fancies and may have even skipped their meal that day in sheer revulsion unable to stomach the factual existence of such creations in a world that puts a premium on perfection. Perfect mind and perfect bodies.

Most people are of the view that people with such strange deformities are sub humans to be exhibited in circuses to be looked at curiously and to be a source ribaldry.

Bala has torn this veil and has done a great service to people trapped in their deformities.He has exposed the fact that they are human beings ,like you and me. They laugh and cry.They are not only stirred by emotions but are also fired with desires and ambitions common to all human beings.

Good work !The prize is well deserved.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Brain is a brain.....

I have heard of those popular lines of famous poet "A rose is a rose no matter by whatever name it is called."

Has one heard of these lines "A brain is a brain no matter whose it is" ?......

The above observation was made by a doctor from NIHHANS if paper reports are to be believed when quizzed about that institute requisitioning the brains of Sri Jyoti Basu the 95 year old patriarch of West Bengal politics , who passed away recently ,pledging his body for medical research.

The neuro -scientists are keen on conducting research on age related problems and want to know how Jyoti Basu was absolutely fit till the end.

I am awe stuck by the generosity of late Sri Jyoti Basu ,but shrink at the thought of the sacrilege his mortal remains will go through but my finer feelings have been assuaged by that
doctors poetry!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bloggers anonymous.

Till I started blogging I was a nondescript person minding my own business and meandering through life with its accompanying pleasures and pains like all those countless ,faceless and voiceless Indians.All my experiences and views were internalized within myself .I was my sole critic. I had but one follower ---me

Then I started scribbling in the cyber blackboard called' blog'.When comments started trickling in I realised that my sphere of influence which was so far confined to the four walls of my house had extended to a larger tract.This sent me on a tizzy.My writings were tickling some and irritating others. But the very fact that it was engaging the attention of viewers gives me a high that keeps my eyes constantly riveted on my profile,drinking in the increasing number of profile views.

This has become so addictive that I resolved on New years day not to view it for at least a month!I am finding the going tough but I am sticking it out decidedly.Thank fully the gadgets which display 'hits' and the place of origin of such' hits' has not been installed.If not I would be pining away at front of that small portal to this large wide world stretching across dales and dunes,mountains and plains and deserts and seas, 24 hours a day!

I am in a good mind to invite Amitabhji the 'Pitamaha' of bloggers who has written a colossal number of blogs and receives a minimum of 500 comments per day every day ,to inaugurate 'Bloggers anonymous conclave' where we can speak [not write] about our addiction viz blogging,blogging, and blogging to our hearts content and find ways and means to overcome it.

I am moved to extend as a special gesture a life long membership to this exclusive club to 'Twitter Tharoor' free of cost.That man is in a advanced state of addiction.What with a heady one lakh and more 'hits' he is bugged by the question 'to tweet or not to tweet 'every waking moment of his life that he doesn't mind jeopardising his high profile career for a few compulsive twitters a day !

Monday, January 18, 2010

Dear viewers.

The views expressed in my blogs are the outcome of what I observe and perceive.I don't expect any one to subscribe to it.Nor do I espouse any political or religious cause.

I am a Hindu and I relish extolling the virtues of Hinduism .That doesn't mean that I look down upon other religions.There are several sublime as well as pragmatic principles in the major religions of the world that have a universal appeal with which I am in total concurrence .

Similarly my penchant of taking pot shots at the ubiquitous politicians --the favorite whipping boy of Indians doesn't mean that I abhor them.In fact I like and admire several leaders from Dravidian and National parties [right ,centre and left ]

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Heal thyself .

A leading cardiologist dies of a massive heart attack, a neuro surgeon kicks the bucket due to brain hemorrhage ,an endocrinologist withers away owing to lack of hormones and a famous psychiatrist leaps to his death.

Specialists and leading doctors die on and off prematurely of the same disease they show expertise in healing .They fail to heal themselves!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Singara Chennai !

As I stepped on to the street to commence my morning activities I was so dazzled by the spectacle of a sparkling street that I had to shade my eyes with my hands.The road was spotlessly clean.Not a single shred of paper ,plastic cover or dried up leaf was in sight.It shone like a well polished mirror.Was I really in the centrally located ,busiest and one of the dirtiest areas of Chennai?

Yes I was .The overpowering noise a characteristic feature of these parts was very much audible.In fact it was in a much higher decibel.The usual noises were drowned by the voice of the State environment minister's booming through several loudspeakers erected in the makeshift podium in the vacant ground opposite to my flat.He was admonishing the local populace not to pollute the skies by burning tyres ,etc on 'Bhogi' which is to be celebrated two days hence.

Whilst he and the Mayor of the city were exhorting all to follow public hygiene ,their drivers and minions waiting impatiently on the pavement were without the least compunction spitting on and off on the street that had been so painstakingly spruced up .

Never the less it is my New year's wish that a minister or some important corporation official pay a visit to our locality [bursting to its seems with voters ready to cast their vote in every election without fail] once a fortnight in the least. It is then things look up .A lot of earth moving machines,garbage collecting trucks and sturdy men with shovels and pitch forks are pressed into service .Not a single stone is left unturned to welcome these new era monarchs !And in the process the area where I live gets a tremendous face lift.The environment around me becomes so spankingly clean that the breeze blowing acquires the tang of pure mountain air!

The ministers belonging to the two adversarial parties have one thing in common .They will willy nilly pay a visit to Singapore .Dazed by the high levels of public hygiene and cleanliness of that country will return , fired with the ambition of emulating the same back home .Riding high on the cleanliness drive several laws and bye laws will be passed .One such law passed in recent times Post haste was that no person should clean one's car on the roads .Very ambitious law indeed !It was obeyed barely for a week and was given the go bye,by the subjects swiftly who have scant regard for public hygiene and was conveniently over looked by the rulers who may have had more pressing [profitable] problems to attend to like local elections etc.I see every car or van parked on the streets get its regular wash right on the street itself before its owner drives off to work place!

One experiment with cleanliness that really worked was when onyx a conservancy company was awarded the contract to clean up Chennai .Undeterred by the Herculean task they transformed the city!A army of young and strong men worked hard for long hours under the constant supervision of their superiors.Overnight Chennai became 'Singara Chennai' and continued to remain so for several years .Chennaites were doubly blessed when the opposition party that stormed into power in the following hustings ,renewed the contract.

I was proud of my city then . I should have known better and kept my heart brimming with pride in check .Did all those visitors to Chennai cast a spiteful eye? In the subsequent convolutions of power the party that originally introduced the efficient company was back in the saddle.Their first act was to cancel the contract and award it to another citing cost factor!

Under the able mismanagement of this new company Chennai is back to its original self.The honey moon is over .Was it the cost factor that made this company employ much married,harried,middle aged women who look perpetually tired and fatigued and are pathetically deficient in the strength young men posses in clearing mountains of garbage and rubble.Some literally droop so frazzled over their shovels and brooms that I am moved to offer them a helping hand!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Once a Hindu always a Hindu !

Why is it a gargantuan task to convert Hindus to other faith's and religions? Romans and Greeks who can boast of ancient civilisations as antiquated as Indian civilisation and were the toast of the modern European states during the renaissance ,abandoned their classical religion in favour of Christian tenets.

Egypt has mummified bodies of 4000 year old men and women preserved till date.But the population let go off the worship of Ra the sun god and other forms of worship and rituals honed over 5000 years by a highly civilized society on the banks of river Nile when Islam came knocking on their doors in the middle ages.The population converted to the new religion enmasse'.

Indian civilisation is as old as Roman ,Greek and Egyptian civilisations.Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism as it is popularlyknown is very much alive ,vibrant and thriving and copiously multiplying in the place of its birth.Bharat or India faced waves and waves of invasions several centuries before Christ .Each foreign invader brought their religion along with their weaponery and tents only to be a mute spectator to it being absorbed into Hindu fold.

Since the middle ages Indian subcontinent was over run by Islamic rulers.They ruled India continuously for a period of 1000 years !Several powerful Muslim rulers tried every trick in the book to convert the populace, into Mohammedans that adamantly stuck to its religious moorings barring a few .A major portion of the Hindu population refused to be cowed and held on .

This sacred land spawned a magnetic religion -Buddhism that attracted adherents to its fold from the far corners of Asia and is assiduously followed in those countries to date.Unbelievably this religion doesn't exit in the land of its birth!Buddha has been absorbed into the Hindu pantheon of gods as the 10' th avatar of Vishnu !

The British ruled this country absolutely for 300 years .The zealous Christian missionaries who followed in their wake could convert but a fraction of the population, mostly tribal folks.

Why ? Why is Hinduism so resilient? It lies low when a new religion hits the scene and then bounces back with more vigour next time on.

To my mind the most important reason behind the infallible faith reposed in Hinduism by succeeding generations of Bharatvasis is the unshakable belief in the doctrine of Karma.
Whilst Christianity,Islam and Buddhism enumerate ethical and moral principles that must be diligently followed if one was to escape hell and damnation or be pushed to the yawning abyss of nether worlds or account for one's deeds or misdeeds on the judgement day, no suchthreats are held out to a Hindu since the doctrine of Karma merely states that your present status is due to some actions done in the past[which has been stretched to include past lives] and your future state of affairs will depend upon your actions being performed in the present.If your actions are good and are done without hankering for its fruits you can attain the ultimate bliss -Moksham which translates into -never being born again -freedom from the vicious circle of life and death - a happy union with the prime mover of the universe!

If your actions and thoughts are wicked ,bad or devilish the only punishment meted out is not being banished into hell or pushed into barrels of boiling oil or doomed fore ever in some gaping void but to be born again in this sorrowful world and the meanest and harshest punishment[ if it is considered as such ] is to be born as a snake or a rat or some microscopic organisms like bacteria etc.ie lowly animal forms.

Hindus there fore do not go somewhere into unknown frontiers when they shed their lives but are believed to be born again and again in familiar environs. That crow flying over your head could very well be your grand father having attained this present status due to his Karma.A very comforting doctrine !

This doctrine is also comforting in another way .Its belief in fatalism acts as a buffer and keeps social tensions at bay. There is no scope of social upheavals ,turmoils or revolutions like of those witnessed in France or Russia because every Hindu staunchly believes that what ever state he finds himself to be -rich or poor,well built or handicapped,ugly or handsome, skilled or a blunderer,genius or a idiot is all due to his or her fate ,the out come of past actions or karma and one has to accept it stoically as nothing can be done about it but henceforward ensure that ones present actions and thoughts are good,-dharmic i.e to seek truth in all matters relentlessly,being kind and charitable to fellow human beings and to strictly adhere to 'non violence' in thoughts ,speech and in deeds , if one earnestly seeks a better berth in the next birth.

This theory of Karma and re birth is so flexible and comforting that no Hindu will ever forsake his religion to other strict doctrinal religions, what ever inducement is offered or how much so ever force is exerted.

Hinduism is a very confident religion .It has no doubts about its efficacy .It has withstood innumerable trials and tribulations in the course of its long history.Its flexibility can be equated to modern notions of secularism without trumpeting about its large hearted and broad minded credentials.Hindus would willingly accept other gods as their own and would even reverently incarnate Jesus as a avatar of Vishnu the only stumbling block would be the massive outrage of other religionist's.

Hindus consider themselves to be lucky to be born as a Hindu because one can be a Hindu only by virtue of birth and not by conversion .Once a Hindu always a Hindu!