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.

Eclipse

It was 1979 and there was to be a total solar eclipse visible in Eastern India. I was at that time in Ranchi where the eclipse was about 90+ percent or so. All I had to do to watch the total eclipse was to go to Konark. But, a big but, the company I worked for was in doldrums and I had not received my salary for nearly three months. I had no money to undertake the journey.

I, however, had great fun. I had a cook, Munna, who knew no English. I was a recent immigrant to the "North" and when I had landed in Ranchi in December 1978, that is, a few months before the eclipse, I knew not a single word of spoken Hindi. I had however picked up enough Hindi in the intervening month and a half to lecture Munna about the phenomenon of eclipses. With a candle, a lemon and an orange I explained the phenomenon to him and convinced him about the harmlessness of the eclipses. So much so that on that great day there were only two people in the whole of Ranchi who witnessed the eclipse. Munna and yours truly.

However, Munna was not able to enjoy the whole thing because he decided to visit a doctor and family during the eclipse. He had earlier worked for the doctor and still maintained contact with the family. After seeing part of the eclipse, he strode out to the doctor's house with his new found confidence, all alone in the deserted streets of Ranchi. When he knocked on the door, someone from inside called out. "Who is there?". Munna announced himself. A door opened and a disembodied hand pulled him inside and the door was closed. He was soundly chastised for having ventured out during the eclipse and that was the end of his watching the eclipse.

This is how, I have been about the superstitions surrounding eclipses for a major part of my 54+ years. I have watched all eclipses that I could, eaten during that time and have lived to tell the tale, so to say.

However my confidence in the harmlessness of eclipses has been shaken in recent times.

Come eclipse and normally rational, intelligent and educated people go nuts. Cause and effect. Eclipses drive people crazy. Eclipses are harmful. QED! They tell you that there are negative vibrations (of what please!?) - a favourite word of the pseudo scientific. Food can go bad easily because of the reduced light - have these people forgotten the phenomenon of nights?

Now with the advent of TV, instead of rationality spreading, irrationality is spreading at the time of Eclipses. Today there was a Dr. something or the other Kapur, a lady, on one of the channels, who claimed to be an opthamologist and she was mouthing such utter nonsense and unmitigated rubbish about the harmful Infra red rays and negative vibrations and what not that my blood pressure rose and my peptic ulcer acted up and I had to reach for my antacid and meditate to calm myself.

I tried to call the channel, which helpfully gave a couple of phone numbers, to ask them to throw that self styled expert out of the window - hoping that their studio was in a high enough place. But no, the lines were perpetually busy. Before I could get my call through, the show ended. Now I wonder if the eclipse affected my ability get the line? What?

Do you still have any doubts that eclipses are harmful? If you have, the eclipse has affected your irrationality and there is no hope for you......

Passage

Indian music has lost two great singers within a short time. Names that are iconic.

D K Pattammal and Gangubai Hangal.

They had so many things in common. They were both musicians of the highest calibre. Their concerts were always good or more never a lacklustre performance. Both had to break tradition. DKP because she was Brahmin and Hangal, because she was not from the upper castes. Both had voices that could be called masculine or at least low pitched for women singers. Both were highly classical and traditional in approach but at the same time innovative and forged their distinctive styles. Both were utterly amazing persons.

What loss.

Here are some memories I have of these greats.

DKP gave a lecture demonstration in the College of Fine Arts of the Mysore University. She was accompanied on the Mridangam by her son Shivakumar. She sang one of her popular songs, "naanoru vilaiyaattu bommaya?" (Am I a toy?). While she sang a particularly moving passage of the song, in which the poet challenges the Goddess Jagannaayaki - "Do you enjoy hearing me cry - amma... amma...?". Her son's presence and the moving passage moved her so much that she cried.

Gangubai was once honoured in Mysore. She was asked to speak and she hesitantly did. She said, "I am a singer. Music is my language. But, still, you have hounoured me and to refuse to talk would be churlish." She went on to recount that the previous day, she had sung in the temple at Nanjangud and after some time the audience requested her to sing something light. She said, "I only sing Khyal. I know nothing else. The only light I know is" she pointed to the electric lights hanging above, "are these!". That actually defines her music. Serious and deep and weighty - not as a burden but as opposed to light or light hearted.

When she was hounoured, various local organisations wanted to honour her too and she was garlanded in the name of many of those. One of them was the local association of her community. She chastised them gently. I am a musician. I have no caste or community. But these people keep reminding me of my caste. It was not bitterness, it was not annoyance. It was just a wish that it were not so.

After her little speech, she sang for a few hours. She was such a small fragile lady. But when she sat down and sang she grew to something huge. That was the impression she created with the power of her singing.

Great women, great singers. Gone for ever. I can only feel lucky that I had the opportunity to listen to them.

Glimmer

I received a forwarded mail from a friend and I have reproduced the contents here in full, after getting the permission of the original mailer.

******************

When I narrated the incident below to a close friend over lunch earlier this week, he suggested that I should pen this down in an email and circulate it to as many friends in Bangalore as possible. So here goes an interesting experience of interacting with an IPS officer, who made me see a Glimmer of Hope, amidst the corruption that encompasses so many of our public services.

It was Friday 5th June, at about 3 pm, I drove my Ford Ikon car into 80 feet road at Indiranagar in Bangalore ; wanting to reach on time for my 3.30 pm meeting with a client. As I entered the wide road I saw a posse of Traffic Constables who stopped my car on the side and asked me to produce my car documents to the Traffic Sub Inspector (SI) who was standing on the footpath. I walked up to the SI and displayed my Driving License, to which he told me to bring my Car Insurance certificate and also my Emission Certificate for the car. I walked back to my car and realized that I had not carried either of the documents in my car and was cursing myself for such a slip.

I came back to the SI and told him that I did not have my document and what was to be done.

The SI had a half smile & told me that the fine for not carrying both these documents was Rs. 600/- however I could pay him Rs. 300/-. I removed my wallet and told the SI that I would pay the amount and want a receipt for the same, to which he suddenly grew stern and told me that in which case the fine was Rs. 1,100/-.

I paid the fine of Rs 1,100/- and took the receipt, wondering why the fine had suddenly escalated just because I wanted a receipt instead of paying the Rs. 300 bribe which the SI had asked.

After my client meeting as I was driving back, I was annoyed at myself for not carrying the documents and I was angry that at an officer at an SI level was blatantly seeking a bribe.

I decided that I should do something about it as soon as I reached my Home Office. I logged on to the net and found out that the Traffic Police of Bangalore has a website, which gives details of the fines chargeable. It also provides for logging complaints and gave the email ids of the Asst Commissioner of Police for the traffic division. At about 7 pm that evening I wrote an email to the email id of the ACP, narrating the incident of the afternoon and lodging a formal complaint in the email. I also found out the website of Lok Ayukta of Karnataka and marked a CC of the same email to the email ids given on the Lok Ayukta's website.

By about 7.30 pm I had done the needful, and I was happy with myself that what I preach in my Leadership Workshops with respect to Values, I had practiced to a large extent – by paying the fine instead of paying the bribe and reporting the bribe demand to the best of my ability.

I thought the chapter ended there, little realizing that I would be having an indeed amazing and pleasant experience on this whole incident in the hours & days to come.

On Saturday 7th June (the next day) at about 2 pm, I logged into my Home Office. I checked my email and lo behold, I had 3 emails sent to me by the ACP to who I had written the complaint email the previous day.

The first one informed me that I had done the right thing by paying the fine and not the bribe. The second email asked to give my complaint in writing and fax it to the ACP, so that action can be taken on the SI. And the 3rd email asked me to give the ACP a call on his office no or his cell no, so that he could accelerate the action to be taken on the erring SI. I promptly put my complaint in a letter and sent a scanned copy through the email to the ACP.

On Sunday, 8th June in the morning I checked my email and I had an email from the ACP stating that the erring SI had been suspended from services. It also said that I must give the ACP a call to work out the next formalities. I called the ACP (till now I did not know the name of this ACP) who answered my call on the Sunday. During my phone conversation he introduced himself as ACP Pravin Sood, and thanked me for doing what I did with respect to not paying the bribe and also escalating the matter in writing. He explained that many Bangalore citizens escalate such cases to him but then back down when asked to give the complaint in writing. He apologized to me.

Yes. He said "I am sorry for what you faced with this SI who harassed you, because he did not have any business stopping your to check your documents if you had not done any traffic violation". He invited me over to Tea to his office at a time convenient to me. After I kept the phone down, I could not believe that here was a case where within 48 hours of an incident of seeking bribe, the erring office was suspended.

I decided that I must meet in person ACP Pravin Sood, speaking with whom for 10 minutes had changed a few paradigms in my mind about Public Services Officers. Since I was travelling the next few days, I sought time with him on 15th June at 4.30 pm at his office. I reached ACP Sood's office a little early (at 4.10 pm) and was pleasantly surprised when I was ushered into his office at 4.15 pm, he asked me to sit as he was completing a meeting with another delegation. At sharp 4.30 pm he ended his previous meeting and turned to me and spent the next 20 minutes discussing with me several aspects of Traffic Policing in Bangalore . He offered me a cup of tea (Many corporate clients I visit do not see me on time and do not ask me for a cup of tea, so what ACP Sood was doing was indeed better than many corporate folks I have met…!).

Right through the conversation, he was courteous, frank and completely articulate on his thoughts and ideas.

He reiterated that there would be no repercussions on me for giving the complaint in writing. And that I may have to make one appearance in person when the internal enquiry is done. He also offered that instead of me having to come to the Police headquarters to give the statement, he could send one of his officers to my residence to take my statement if I so wish.

When I was leaving ACP Sood's office, I told him "Over the years, many of my friends and cousins have urged me to migrate and settle in one of the western countries, but I have consciously chosen to stay back in India by my choice. When I have interactions like the one I had with you ACP Sood, I am happy that I made the choice to stay back in India ". It was an impromptu comment, straight from my heart to which ACP Sood just smiled and shook my hand.

When I was walking out of ACP Sood's office, I felt reassured that if we have officers like ACP Pravin Sood in our country, there is a Glimmer of Hope, against corruption - provided, we as citizens have the courage to say NO to Bribes and have the inclination to report cases of Bribe.

I am no major RTI or Social activist, yet I found all the info I needed on the web, sitting in my Home Office…

Change begins with me.

I can make a difference.

Regards,


Shabbir Merchant
***********************

National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore

A few weeks ago, a friend told me about this new National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore. It was inaugurated in February 2009 and I had completely missed the news about it. So, I visited the place today and had a great time. All the greats of the Indian art world are represented here and I could see the originals. Tagore (Rabindranath), Tagore (Abanindranath), Anjolie Ela Menon, Amrita Sher Gil, S G Vasudev, K K Hebbar, Yusuf Arakkal, K C S Paniker, M F Husain, Ramkinkar Baij, Nand Lal Bose, Jamini Roy, P T Reddy, Ravi Varma are all there. Of course there are more, either their names are not familiar to me or I do not recall some of them at the moment.

I have heard many people say that they do not understand "Modern Art." What they mean, often, is that they do not understand "abstract" art. If you are one of them, do not make the mistake of dismissing this Gallery of Modern Art. There are many "realistic" paintings - or should I say non-abstract? If you are reasonably interested in art, you should visit this beautiful gallery.

Even if you do not "like" the paintings, I am sure you enjoy the architecture. It is an old royal residential building converted to a museum. Manikyavelu Manisons.



A modern wing has been added with completely contemporary architecture that does not stick out like a sore thumb. See below a picture of the open staircase in the modern wing. (The greenish tinge to the picture is thanks to the trees all around it!


I was given permission to take a single picture of one of the rooms to add to my post. (See below) The pictures on either side of the window are very good indeed.


If you want to know where this gallery is, DO NOT LOOK for it in the maps on the internet. You get five different locations and of course four of them are wrong!

The best I can do is - it is on the road between Mt Carmel College and Chalukya Hotel, called Palace Road. The full address is NGMA, 49, Palace Road, Bangalore, 560052. Ph: 22201027

The exhibits keep changing with paintings "borrowed" from the NGMA Delhi. Keep an eye open for the announcements in the papers.

There are displays that give some information on the artists, schools of art and such, which are very educative.

On the whole, a great experience. It is sad though, that there are not many visitors to this gallery. I was there for more than two hours (not sufficient, actually, and plan to visit again soon) and saw only two other visitors.

After all the good words, there are some comments. I will be sending the this post's link to NGMA and I hope they take it as a feedback and act on it. Based on my brief interaction with the staff there, I am almost certain that they will.

The floor of the gallery may deserve better maintenance. Viewing some exhibits is hampered by the lighting. Let me give a specific example. When you stand in front of one of the Anjolie Ela Menon paintings, a light meant for a painting on the other side of the wall is directly in your eye. This one is a very beautiful painting of a mother and her two children. Some of the name boards may have typographical errors, Thrashing instead of Threshing, for instance, next to one of Ramkinkar Baij's paintings. These comments are only to make an excellent place better.

Cola Anyone?

A friend sent me the following joke.

A salesman of a Cola company returns from his Middle East assignment.
A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Arabs?"
The salesman explained, "When I got posted in the Middle East, I was very confident that I would do well as Cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem. I don't know Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters...
First poster: A man lying in the hot desert sand...totally exhausted.
Second poster: The man is drinking our Cola.
Third poster: The man is now totally refreshed.
And then these posters were pasted all over the place.
"It should have worked!" said the friend.
"The hell it should have!” said the salesman. I didn't realize that Arabs read from right to left"

I commented that the salesman had told the truth, inadvertently!

I came across this article a few days ago.

Here is the gist of the article.

Colas have never been known as being healthy. Cola consumption leads to caries, bone loss, diabetes and problems with metabolism. But the evidence is building that excessive consumption of cola can lead to Hypokalemia - low levels of Potassium in the blood - which can cause life-threatening muscle paralysis, says Moses Elisaf, an intern at the University in Greece’s Ioannina.

Cases of excessive cola consumption are not isolated. The per capita cola consumption in the US is a whopping 212 liters.

Here is some more in English.

Who is Taking Whom for a Ride?

I am a bit of a board reader. Mark the spelling. It is b-o-a-r-d, not b-o-r-e-d.

I have been an Indian Oil customer for a long time. I have no idea why. I always look for an Indian Oil bunk to buy petrol.

Recently, the advertisement boards in the regular Indian Oil bunk that I go to caught my eye, especially, the parts of the advertisement boards in kannaDa, or at least, what is supposed to be kannaDa.

Look at these pictures. When did for (ಫಾರ್) become kannaDa? One particular word ichidana (ಇಚಿದನ) was perplexing. That is a word that I had not come across. Kittel was consulted. The revered Reverend did not know it either. Then the bulb went on. The word is indhana - (ಇಂಧನ) - fuel!

Now who is the culprit here? The advertising agency? The translator the ad agency hired to get the English copy into kannaDa? The man who composed it on a computer for printing? On the whole, IOCL has been taken for a ride. What is the use of an advertisement if no one understands it? More so, no one CAN understand it.

Should I have second thoughts about continuing to be a loyal IOCL customer? I am still thinking. Not just because I do not like a language being mutilated like this. If a company has such scant respect for details . . .

I will mail the link to this post to the head honchos of Corporate Communications and Marketing of IOCL. I wonder what they will do.

Now "enjoy" the pictures below:

EkAMtate is a noun form of the noun EkAMta!


ಫಾರ್! That is a good one. jenuvin and aayil! Great!

ichidana!

Are they selling fuel and oil or are they selling a skin cream like Itchguard?

Now, what does that mean. Definitely not the kannaDa version of the English copy below it!

Anti-Blogging

The former (thank you) president of the US of A George Bush divided the world into two camps. His notoriously dumb "Either you are with us or against us" seems to have caught on, however. By that world view this post must be classified as the name suggests.

I read an interview in German with a successfull authoress about blogging. She is swearing off blogs because of her own reasons. When I talked about this to Shruthi, she asked me if I could translate it for her and here I am. It is not a very good translation, but, all the important things are there.

So, here you go Shruthi!

Atheists' Call

I recently translated an article from German.

The gist: Most holidays in Germany are Christian holidays. There is a demand for a non-Christian holiday! You can read the full (practically) text here.

Disclaimer: The text is not well edited. I may do it over time but it has all the important facts.

Older? Yes. Wiser? . . .

Some time ago, I had a full head of hair. Ah! English is funny. Imagine my head with hair where the brain should be!!

"Some time ago" has a comforting ring to it. Does not reveal how long ago it was. I have to admit that it was a long time ago, anyway.

Somewhere along the line, I started losing hair. But, I did not lose sleep about it because I had lots of it, hair I mean. Losing sleep would only make things worse perhaps. No? Definitely, my hair line was receding. Being an optimist, I thought "less hair to comb" - in contrast, a pessimist would have thought "more face to wash" as the old joke goes.

One summer evening, it started raining, suddenly. Typical summer showers. Huge drops of water hit my head. As I was hurrying towards the nearest shelter, I heard some funny noises close by. Really close. I realised with shock that it was the sound of the water hitting my head. How could that be? What was all the hair doing? I was used to my hair getting wet with the scalp still dry. Of course, that is an exaggeration but not by much.

That evening when I reached home, I looked at the back of my head with the help of two mirrors to find that I had a bald patch where the whorl used to be. Oh ho! But, who cares. If you are bald, you are bald. So?

Continuing the hairy story the next unkind cut was that my moustache started greying. Not the hair on my head. My barber was sympathetic. He asked a question. How is it that the hair that is some fifteen years younger has started greying when the hair on the head is still black? He answered his own question. It is like the "modern" generation. Not very tough . . .

Over time, the moustache got greyer and greyer. Someone asked me why I did not dye it. I said, "I would rather die than dye" and was feeling pretty pleased about my wordplay when I was asked, "Then, why do you dye your hair?" Me? Dye my hair? Oh no. I had to pick out the few hairs that were grey on my head and show them that I did, in fact, not dye.

With all this, I still felt young. I believed (and still believe) in the adage: Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it does not matter. I don't mind. (Proof? Here it is: Not long ago some six of us, colleagues, were in the Netherlands for three months. I was the only one who went out every weekend, come rain (almost always) or shine (the remaining time), and saw a lot of places. The others were either tired, or not interested. I was the oldest of the six. QED)

In spite of the bald patch, now larger, and a grey moustache, now trimmed so short that it is like the Tundra from the earlier Amazon basin, when some PYT called me uncle I looked around to see who was being addressed and then found that I was the only one around! By the time I was getting used to this came a kick you know where. We were in Tekkadi and there was this lady having trouble with an incessantly crying child. I have a way with children, other than my own of course, and tried to distract this crying child. And the ingrate of a mother crooned to the baby "ahhh ha! Look at Granpa!" I almost stomped out. I stayed and continued my attempts to distract the child, but you bet, my heart was not in it.

Then came the unkindest cut of them all. Tutty Fruity, my dear niece, had Puttachi. And now I am a tAta - gran'pa, officially. That is Ta Ta to my illusions of youth.

Pssst: But when no one is watching, or for that matter even when many are watching, I continue to be myself.

Ready for Tomorrow?

Reading a news paper is a health hazard. Mental health, I mean.

Violence from all over the world is the staple. Organised, sponsored by governments, conveniently ignored by governments, personal - greed induced, jealousy induced, film inspired . . . the list seems to be unending. Land grabbers, officials taking huge bribes, officials of failed banks and their huge bonuses . .

Fortunately for me, my news paper is delivered at such a time in the morning as I can not read it before I leave for work. Good thing. When I do read the papers, I filter out most of it and read what interests me. Saves a lot of time too.

It is a hard job being a self diagnosed "incurable" optimist in this cynical, violence-ridden world.

Then you come across something like this: Honest Taxi Driver Reaps Rewards.

Ah, I can face tomorrow. All is not lost.

Once an auto(rickshaw) driver drove to my place and returned a bag I and my wife had forgotten in it. Such things must be celebrated. They were celebrated here.

Did you hear about the taxi driver who returned a Stradivarius?

Yes. All is not lost!

German Power

Have you seen the advertisement for Hyundai i10 on TV, in which Mr. Khan proves (or so we are expected to believe?) that power is not inversely proportional to speed?

Or this site?

Since when did we start specifying power in PS in India? Or should the question be, why have we not stopped using HP as the unit of power in India? PS is short for Pferdestärke - Horse Power, in German.

And why are we still using HP even though we are officially done with the archaic HP as unit of power?

Do we lack Horse sense? Or is it only that I do not have it and do not know why?

Julia Lermontova

I visited Göttingen recently and spent a weekend there. Visiting Göttingen was a dream come true. After reading about it, for instance in “Brighter than a Thousand Suns”, I had a mental image of it which was clearer than that of places I have seen. But, as it often happens, when a dream does come true you feel that the dream was better. Is it the same phenomenon as the “The book was better”? After all the “the book” is not the book but the image you have of it (or its contents) in your mind! Chew on it. In any case, I was prepared for this and hence had a grand time.


Göttingen has memorials of many greats who lived there at some tome or the other. Benjamin Franklin and Goethe who spent just a month there. The very fact that so many great scientists lived there is the reason for the fascination with the place. I referred to my visit to Göttingen as a pilgrimage, almost sheepishly. After my return, browsing through the net for some missing information, I came across a site of a Japanese scientist who had called his visit to the place pilgrimage too. Ah, that is better. In any case, I posted the pictures of my visit to Göttingen and called the album Shree Kshetra Göttingen.


(As an aside, while talking to my sister about Wimbledon some time ago, I referred to it too as Shree Kshetra Wimbledon. Unfortunately I only passed through the Wimbledon Railway Station in 1985 but never made a proper “pilgrimage”. In a similar vein, I undertook a pilgrimage to Shree Kshetra Heidelberg once. Coincidentally, I passed the village where Boris Becker was born, one of the tennis greats who made SK Wimbledon his abode for a while, on my way to Heidelberg)


With that brief preamble/prologue/tangent/digression let me come to the main reason for starting this post. Julia Lermontova.


There is a plaque on a building commemorating the fact that she lived in that place when she was in Göttingen. Julia who? Lermontova who? Well that was my reaction too.


(Let me admit that this was my reaction to the name Lichtenberg too, which, in hindsight, is unpardonable for an electronics engineer with an interest in biographies of scientists)


But the name Lermontova (Spelt Lermontowa in German) did ring a bell, but, the wrong one. I remembered that there is a famous Russian called Lermontov. But who Lermontov was and what he did to earn his fame, I had no idea. Interestingly the only thing I remembered about him was his portrait - if I am not mistaken, in the magazine Soviet Land, but of course there is no way to confirm it. In any case, I learnt later that he was one of the greatest Romantic poets of Russia. Not unlike Galois, Lermontov died in a duel at the age of 27. This is a tragic thing. Not just the death, which definitely is tragic. The fact that in many cases the circumstances of the death of such people is the only thing we know about them. I can say now that that is all I know about Galois and Lermontov. (To be frank, I know a little more about Galois and his mathematics, even though it is only “journalistic” knowledge.) One more such name is that of van Gogh and that he shot himself and died when 35.


I found that Julia Lermontova was indeed remarkable. So here are two links about her.

Here and here

What a lot of text to put together just two links!

Here is a translation of the text of a commemorative plaque in the Archives of the city of Göttingen.

**********************

Julia Vsevolodovna Lermontova was born on 2. Januar 1847 (According to the Russian calendar in use then, on 21 December, 1846) in St. Petersburg and died on 16 December, 1919 in her ancestral country estate south of Moscow. Because of health problems and the circumstances of her private life she had to give up chemistry when she was 35.

Julia Lermontova is of outstanding importance in the perspective of the history of science in two ways. For one, she can be counted as the pioneer of womens education as she was not only the first one to get a doctorate in Chemistry, but also the first one to graduate according to all the formal requirements. For the other, through her work with the most important chemists of both Germany and Russia she brought together the scientific traditions of both countries and at the same time achieved importance through her own research work in the area of polymerisation.

**************

I also found that Lermontova is mentioned quite often in the articles about her friend and long time companion, Sofia Kovalevskaya. Another remarkable woman!

Credits: The picture of Julia Lermontova and the text of the commemorative plaque are from this site of Dr. Cordula Tollmien, with her kind permission.

Royalty, Cricket and Mobiles

The title of my post reminds me of the name of a Kannada movie - kurubara lakkanoo elijabet raaNiyoo - "The shepherd Lakka and Queen Elizabeth". Perhaps appropriate.

Whenever I see the signs of Britain's preoccupation or fascination with their royalty, "we were amused" oops, I mean, I am amused. Their monarch reigns over a country where the sun almost never rises having once reigned over an empire on which the sun never set. Well he does rise but is obscured by the clouds, most of the time.

My amusement itself amused me because I myself belong to a country where royalty is not even officially recognised any more and we are still fascinated with it. The privy purses they were entitled to was abolished in 1969? But we too are still fascinated by our former royalty.

I was once incenced that the Deccan Herald referred to Srikantha Dutta Narasimha Raja Wodeyar (the son of the erstwhile maharaja of Mysore) as the "Raja himself". The papers and tabloids refer to an actor, the son of a former Nawab as the Chote Nawab. Nawab of what? Bollywood bunkum? There are many politicians who contest elections under the name of Maharani so-and-so and such. 60+ years after gaining independence from the biggest imperial force of the times should have made us immune to royalty. But alas, it has not!

The latest instance of our preoccupation with royalty is evident in the names of the teams of IPL. Royal Challenger, Super Kings, Kings XI (Roman numerals, for chrissake!). The most ridiculous is the Knight Riders. The only (k)night we ever knew was the long night of the British rule.

So being completely democratic I have decided to support only those teams which do not have a royal name. That leaves Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers. Which one of them should be my favourite?

Mumbai has usurped the title Indians. If there was another team with the name Indians attached to it, I would not have minded. So, Mumbai is out. Daredevils. I don't care all that much for daredevilry, so Delhi is out. That leaves the Deccan Chargers.

Now here is a name that is truly pan Indian - even though The Deccan itelf is not. We are neither a very equestrian nation nor do we have a great cavalry tradition. So, the only charger we know is the battery charger. It appears to me that the whole of India is preoccupied with mobile phones. Someone recently wrote that in India there appears to be an unwritten law which goes like "Thou shalt answer the call on your mobile, even if you are at a wedding and it is your own" Next to the phone itself, the most important gadget is the charger.

So Deccan Chargers it shall be that I support!

Puttachi Chronicles - Jag's Chapter

You have to go here for Puttachi Central.

I went to Puttachi's place and gave her a small present. A (stuffed toy) rabbit I bought in Aachen. She loved it.

She was more fascinated by the silk band on the rabbit than the rabbit itself.

When I was leaving her home, her father told Puttachi that she should return the rabbit to me. I was astounded when Puttachi ran in seriously, picked the rabbit up and offered it to me!

When I told her that it was, in fact, her own, she shook her head vehemently and wanted me to take it back. I had to convince her that I had bought it just for her and hence she should have it.

Amazing kid!

Disabled Friendly

Can you guess what the equipment which looks like an ATM is?

This is a device for people on wheel chairs to seek help in the Charels de Gaulle airport, Paris.

A wheelchair-bound person navigates his wheelchair to the machine and presses a button. The blue and white pad on the floor senses if there is really someone at the machine, a camera sends the image of the person someplace and within minutes there is someone to escort the wheelchair-bound person to wherever she/he wants to go in the airport. Very efficient. Very disabled-freindly.

India is supposed to have 70 million disabled people. They are mostly invisible. What is more, it is said that until the 2001 census their number was not even known!

As far as I can see, ours is a very disabled-unfriendly country. Try taking a wheelchair-bound person to a movie in Bangalore and you will know.

Even though, in terms of facilities, we are disabled unfriendly, I should say that the amount of pesonal help rendered by people is staggering. All you have to do is ask. Since most of our disabled are invisible, most people in public places are unaware of how to deal with them. But once you request them and tell them what to do, what you can get done is staggering.

And staggeringly touching and heart warming.

What the people in power have neglected is compensated for by the ever obliging public. Many even look as if you have done them a favour after helping you, instead of the other way around.

Makes me feel that ours is a terrible country manned by a terrific people.

But, the fact remains that a disabled person should feel no need to seek help to lead a normal life. It should be his for the taking, not for the asking.