Dear Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

You say, “Your comment doesn't make any sense!”

I made that comment only because it made sense to me in two different ways. Let me try to explain.

When you try to sell an idea to someone, your chances of selling are better if you answer a question, the acronym of which is WIIFM. It means “What’s in it For Me?” So, the slogan as modified by me, attempts to answer that question for the reader. It is contended that vegetarian food is easy on you So, when you “Go Veg” you are being kind to yourself first!

At another level I am trying to remind the reader that the reader himself is an animal too. The first comment on the same post correctly but cryptically says, “One should see that the differences between us are not of kind but of degree”

Then you say “It is a 'slogan' and you cannot have a slogan like the one you have written....” I cannot really reply to this one as I find that it is a decent enough slogan. But perhaps we are in the sphere of personal opinion and individual taste and hence perhaps we should leave it alone.

Then you say, “Of course, who is not kind to oneself?” Well, if you look around you will find many and in this case meat eaters!! At least that is what is implied by it.

Then you say parenthetically, “(except someone like you who torture himself/herself trying to find 'mistakes'(!) in some totally trivial matters such as the one that you have posted....” In this case you are really mistaken, let me assure you. I was having great fun while doing it. I was NOT trying to find a mistake. Actually the slogan is good and correct. I was only playing, for pleasure, let me assure you, with words. Vegetarianism is not a trivial matter, at least for the animal that is slaughtered and consumed. It is. quite literally, a matter of life and death for it! Don’t you think so?

You say “It appears that you have a whole lot of free time and not much to ponder in life....”

You are at your “wrongest” here.

As a family man, I ride a bike to run errands required to be run to run a family. How does one occupy one’s mind at such times? It is at such times that these interesting snippets catch my eye and my mind processes it for fun. I hope that it amuses some others too and distracts them from the cares of the world but alas, sometimes it irritates someone.

You seem to be an angry (sure) young (?) person. I have a hunch that you reacted like this to one of my earlier posts too. In any case, anger, contempt, jealousy, hate are emotions that hurt the source more than the target. I hope, you learn to control this (and other such emotions) for your own good, happy and long life. I wish you the best.

You may skip the following part as it is only the result of “stock taking”, triggered by your comment. I ran through what I do and have done in my 54 eventful, rollicking years of my life and put them together. In spite of all this I do have some spare time and waste it on watching TV! You may feel I am bragging. Perish the thought! I know of a guy who made a list of 124 things he wanted to do and did all of them, I know a guy who knows 8 or so European languages well enough to professionally do translations. Each of those is a short cut to an inferiority complex. No, I do not brag.

I work 9 hrs in an office, commute to work - about 1:45 Hrs in toto, during which time I read German articles, mostly Sci + Tech, in the process I have taught myself German Language, I meditate (TM), I play the Veena (Carnatic Classical), I sketch (during my first cuppa coffee), I also prepare my own breakfast with bread and oats, iron my own clothes, write mails to friends, sometimes chat and sleep for eight hours too! That is a normal day. Then on abnormal days, I do Su Do Ku, the Hindu Crossword, paint, photograph, blog (and bug some unintentionally)

In the past I have translated two books, (one is likely to see the light of day in December), ran a half marathon after about a year of training, acted in two plays in Kannada - both major roles - one as Basavanna in Karnad’s “Tale Danda”, have painted in oils, (sketching, oils, water colours and German, all self-taught, for all practical purposes), I have learnt to read Bangla, Tamizh and Malayalam and promptly forgotten the last one, I have sung in a group and given a performance, participated in quizzes and debates and lecture competitions and impromptu speech competitions and won prizes too, edited an in-house magazine of a factory where I worked, written poetry, translated poetry of Kaifi Azmi (on my blog), cycled from Mysore to Bangalore (long ago) read many books (from absolute trash including M&B to Shakespeare), I am a BE and an M Tech, Designed a couple of award winning power electronic equipment. . . . .,

I am unhappy, when I have to time to be so, that I have not done mountain/rock climbing, pottery, clay modelling, sculpting, trekking. fly an aircraft, run a company, driven an auto for a day picking fares in Bangalore, driven a bus, a truck, run a restaurant, sail, walked down from Talakaveri to the estuary of Kaveri, swum the English channel (Don’t laugh, why be stingy in dreaming?), travel by the Chunnel, act in a movie. . .,

I will do some of them, sooner or later.

Curiouser and Curiouser

After I wrote the post on the Tale of Two Statues (in Two Cities) I was looking for further information about the fate of the sculptors.

I found that the old sculptor did attend the function but was ignored.

What was heartening was the report in The Hindu about the arrangements the Tamil Nadu government has made to get the sculptor of the Sarvajna statue to be present at the function in Madras.

But the Curiouser and Curiouser of the title is because the Hindu report says that the sculptor is Pramodhini Deshpande. (In the report, the name of the town near Mysore is spelt as it is spelt officially - Yelwal).

Now who is the actual sculptor then? Ms Deshpande or Ms Acharya?

I have always had a (grudging?) admiration for the Tamil people because they generally do things well and neatly. (For proof, of sorts, experience the roads in the two states, for instance). Even in this instance, they have shown how to do things well - as can be read in the Hindu article.

Here are some more links on the subject: 1 2 3

The answer given by one of the persons responsible for the function is ludicrous, to say the least.

Decide for yourself.

Vegetarianism

Slogan on the back of a car.

Be kind to animals. Go Veg

Shouldn't it read:

Be kind to yourself and other animals. Go Veg

?

Here is what I saw on the screen by chance

Maintenance Mode

Hindu Wisdom is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Please try back in 60 minutes.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Artists of the World Unite

Artists of the world unite.
You have nothing to lose but your anonymity!

This is the call I would like to give to artists, especially sculptors.

The trigger for this post, even though I have had this complaint for a long time, is the unveiling the statue of Thiruvalluvar in Bangalore and the planned unveiling of the statue of Sarvajna. in Chennai. The names of the artists who sculpted the two statues are hardly ever mentioned anywhere. Surprisingly, to me at least, Times of India did mention one of them - Ms Vimala Acharya of Ilavala, near Mysore, who created the statue of Sarvajna. (The TOI news report called her an artisan and spelt the name of the place as Illvala. Why is she an artisan and not an artist and there is nothing ill about Ill_vala!). Deccan Herald wrote about Sri Mani Nagappa, who was afraid that he would not live to see the statue being unveiled.

There are literally millions of pieces of sculpture and not a single artist is known - from historical times to today. This, I feel, is a result of the feudalistic attitudes which remain even today. The "king" who funded the project is remembered and the sculptor, artist, architect who created remains forever anonymous.

So here is an open letter to Sudhakar Rao, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, in whose name the announcement of today's unveiling of the statue of Thiruvalluvar is made in the papers.

Dear Mr. Rao,

I would like to congratulate the Government of Karnataka on finally unveiling the statue of Thiruvalluvar. But here are some questions.

Was the sculptor, Sri Mani Nagappa invited to the function?

Was he paid for the trip, and also to some companion as the gentleman is 83 years old?

Was he on the dais and was he honoured?

I am sure there will be a plaque about the function somewhere on the pedestal of the statue or near it. Does the plaque carry the name of Sri Mani Nagappa as the sculptor of the statue?

Have you made sure that similar arrangements are made for Ms Vimala Acharya for the unveiling of the statue of Sarvajna, with the government of Tamil Nadu?

If the answers to any of these questions is no, will you make amends in any form?

With best regards,

Anil

I dream of a day when the artists get the recognition that is their due.

PS. I have no axe to grind - I myself am no artist.