Tamils

For the past six months or so, the happenings in Tamilnadu have been hogging the headlines rather disproportionately.

A non - tamil would often find it difficult to follow the logic , or lack of it, of a common Tamilian ; be it the fierce loyalty of the unwashed masses towards their matinee idols in Cinema and Politics or the herd like behaviour in support of “jallikattu” or “bull-taming”. Any issue remotely connected to “tamil Culture” provokes such an emotional reaction not seen in other parts of the country.

It reminds me of a song by Namakkal Ramalingam Pillai made popular through MGR Starrer “Malai kallan”. (A trivia; the film was produced at Coimbatore , the then popular place for Film studios) .For those who read tamil (and understand poetry) Lyrics

The song talks of the uniqueness of the Tamil people over 2000 years of history and culture. Then it goes on to glorify the tamilian values nurtured through reat literary works like silappadikaaraam, manimekalai, thirukkural, thevaram , divya prabandham and so on. For a more detailed list of ancient tamil literature , one can go to Projectmadurai or Tamil Library

That got me thinking if there is anything really unique about contemporary tamilians in Tamilnadu and the diaspora world over. (Some popular radio stations abroad kalasam , Lankasri, eelam tv, paris tamil radio ). For a complete list http://playtamilfm.com.

So, here I go….

Firstly, the names ; I don’t think there is any other language in the world that figures in names of people as “tamil” does. You have, Tamil chelvan, tamil chelvi, tamilarasu, tamilkudimagan, then thamiz , sen tamil and so on. Even the BJP leader of Tamilnadu unit id Tamilisai(literally meaning Tamil Music) soundararajan. Someone with lots of time and inclination for collectin useless information can check out madurai telephone directory .I can’t even think of one name starting with “Punjabi” or “bangla”, however much a punjabi or bengali may love his mother tongue.

Secondly, Tamils have a craze or affinity for “pattam”. “pattam” is a kind of untranslatable word which can mean an academic degree, lawfully earned, or an honorific bestowed by any formal or informal society, big or small, or even a nick name . For eg Sinnaih Ganesan is better known as Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalithaa was just referred to as amma. EV Ramasami naikar was so impressed by ganesan playing the role of the maratha leader, he awarded the pattam Sivaji and it stuck. There are other actors with "pattam" like  captain or major based on the roles they played on screen.(Silk smitha did not act as silk; have to trace how she came to called simply as Silk or Silku.) Suffice to say , anybody who is anybody in Tamilnadu needs to be called by some name other than the actual name. Kamalhasan is called “thirai gyaani” or “ ulaganaayagan”

Thirdly is the popularity of debating societies or "patti manram" as they are called in tamil. Top speakers are house hold names and some are even treated as rock stars ; in great demand for any cultural or social functions. While Sunday debates are telecast by popular TV Channels, Festivals like Pongal and New year witness Special Bumper Patti manram. It is absolutely amazing to see a full house patiently listening to a group of men and women discussing a social or literary issue, quite unlike Arnab Goswamy’s panelists. The debate could be a passionate discussion on who was a nobler character in mahabharatam, karnan or arujnan or it could be a subject that touches every life; Who has more influence on bringing up a child, the teachers or parents. It could even be some trivia like idli tastes better with chuttney or sambhar. Week after week people do come up with a new subject for testing their eloquence and of course the capacity of audience to sit through hours of talk-talk-talk

Fouthly, the tamil’s love for silly jokes , particularly in their weekly magazines , is unbelievable.. About 10-20 percent of any magazine is devoted to silly jokes and till today there are jokes in every magazine on such stale issues like “sleeping in the office” “a king running away from battle “. To top it , these days, you also have jokes from the social media forums.

Fifthly, we have the monthly novelettes brought out by leading publications. There are only two genres, crime and romance. A new issue would cost Rs 20 / and an old one as little as Rs 2 or 3. Outside Madras Central you can see the shops selling these books  in Kilos. These novelettes , besides being the favourites of housewives and travelers, are an important source for plots for film directors.

Sixthly, tamils have a great affinity for lottery tickets. Surprisingly there are states like Sikkim and Bhutan who print lottery tickets in Tamil and Malayalam. I think Kerala has clearly overtaken tamilnadu in their attempt to woo Lady Luck.

Last, but the most disturbing trait is the readiness for self – immolation. Whenever a hero like MGR dies , the tragedy becomes personal loss to many a family due to spate of  the self-immolations that follow. 31 people killed themselves when MGR died . Very disturbing indeed. There were other issues like Anti-hindi agitation, Srilankan tamil problems, arrest of a popular leader and so on have triggered self-immolation.

Recently we saw some bizarre ways of protest at Jantar Mantar by Tamilnadu farmers. Not easy to decode; I suppose it is a complex mix of fierce attachment to the language and culture , coupled with total inability to deal with contemporary issues in a rational manner.



PS : This post does not take into consideration, Tamil Brahmins, who are a different species all together. They love Tamil, but they also love Sanskrit, English and any other language. Atleast , I haven't come across any of them with "Tamil" in their names.

The Tamil Brahmin Exodus started long before Kashmiri Pandits. The Dravidians with their anti-brahmin stance and reservations for education, successfully drove them out of Tamilnadu. Fortunately for them , the whole world outside Tamilnadu was good, a sort of carrot and stick; carrot outside and stick within TN. You will find them in corporate board rooms and back offices all over the world. Physically, they are too timid to tame a cat, leave alone a bull. They are outside the purview of this post, which is all about 'dravidians' as they like to be called.

Is variety the curse of life ?

Variety is the spice of life , is a much abused cliché . 

It starts with food, goes on to clothes and touches every aspect of life.

A random google search throws up this explanation

Diversity makes life interesting, as in Jim dates a different girl every week—variety is the spice of life, he claims.  

After all "Polygamy is the opposite of monotony"

Of course there is no mention of Mary seeking the spice of life. 

What does it mean in day to day life ? Variety in cuisine has come to  mean changing your dietary preference every day from Mughlai to South Indian, Continental to  Thai and so on. Why do you need so much variety; to break the monotony of course. My question  is don't we need a staple diet to build up monotony in the first place. How else can you break the monotony ?

Secondly, no two experiences are the same as  any experience depends on both the subject and the object .

  When you listen to the same music , over and over, you either get hooked on to it or move away from it. No music worth listening to, leaves the listener unaffected. So the next time you listen to the same music, the experience is so different, and when you listen to a kind of music for over 25-30 years, it becomes a unique experience by itself.

Kolaveri kind  of Music comes and goes, but MS kind of music goes on forever. Firstly , it is not monotony as every time you listen, the experience is more intense, and even if it is so, why should I want to break this heavenly monotony.

 Cuisine is one area where spice plays a major role. Here again, if you ask anyone hooked to the delicacy called curd rice with lemon pickle, he or she  would swear that it is not the same experience but every time it tastes better and better.

These days it is fashionable to serve a variety of cuisine in a single meal. The other day, we attended a wedding lunch at a five star hotel and as per norms, there was a lavish spread covering recipes from every region across continents. The diners are not happy with the taste of one region, but help themselves to a micro portion of every dish that looks appetizing. It is not uncommon to have Manchurian, chicken tikka , noodles and dosa punctuated by Thai soup and Chocolate soufflé 

The next day many complained of stomach upset and with so many dishes, it was indeed difficult to identify the culprit. My own reading is that it was the random order of consuming a random combination of dishes that did it.

 In the pre-refrigerator days, the left over, from the day meal could be carried over for the evening, but any food unconsumed in the evening meal had to be given away. I remember the typical call of the beggars who would regularly make their rounds at night to collect these left overs. The housewives also kept aside some food for these people. These alms seekers mostly ended up with small portions of all kinds of food in their bowls, much like what we find on the plates of variety seekers in a five star hotel. 

So much for variety.

Running commentaries and Media Coverage on Rush for Cash

I remember the first running commentary I heard of India - West Indies Test series in 1966. Those days it was not just a novelty, but pure magic to be able to follow live, an event taking place thousands of miles away. But these commentaries, then,  were reserved mainly for sports events. Today every event or even a non-event is telecast live with tadka or embellishments.

Anyone who is a regular spectator of football, tennis or cricket matches would vouch that watching an event live is so different from watching it on TV. What is a cricket match without the crowd hollering for 'fours' and 'sixes' in unison or what is a tennis match that doesn't give you a neck pain following the ball from side to side. There is something very unreal in lying on a couch with a packet of chips watching the players sweat it out.

 I remember the high altitude posts like Siachin where satellite TV had just made its appearance. MTV Grind used to be a popular show among soldiers and officers alike. What can be more unreal than  men clad in layers and layers of warm clothing gawking at the almost naked men and women basking in the sun. These soldiers would not have seen any female form clothed or otherwise and exposed parts of their own bodies for months.

Seeing the media coverage on the current issues that is how I feel, far removed , disconnected and disoriented. We are subjected to day long tale-commentary on #rushforcash. If some rabble rouser goes hysterical, media personnel are not far behind. Once in a while I go out to the town, to see for myself, the situation on ground. Being from a semi rural town, I can hardly connect the real life situation I see, to the TV news running all day.

I think the best coverage from Ground Zero , on the subject was done by Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today. His coverage from various banks followed by his coverage of the Parliament is nicely summed up in his tweet .(hail twitter for the word restriction)

     Whichever way you throw a fat cat , it always lands on its feet, sometimes crushing some hardworking ants under its feet , further softening the landing. Yeh Hai India. Yeh hai Dunia.

Cartoon : Courtesy: https://twitter.com/hashtag/StraightLines?src=hash

Online Woes

These days major load of the postal department has been taken over by Courier services and E-Commerce and net banking. P & T has become just P . Telegram had gone redundant years back , but only recently has the Govt  admitted to the fact and has closed down the service officially. Yet there are times one needs to visit these dinosaur departments once in a while.

(We actually have these ancient style post boxes at Mhow till date. This is no snap from the History Book !!) 

Having filed the ITR , I had to send it by Speed post (or just drop it into the Dinosaur's mouth)

The Post office was virtually deserted, with one or no customer at any counter. The Queue at my counter with all of one customer just would not move for over 15 minutes. There was an old man at the post, peering into  his screen with a frozen look of concern and concentration. I woke him up from his reverie to learn that the server was not working and that he was 'trying'. I also learnt that there was no manual way to book the post. It was windows trouble shooting at its best with the slogan "Re-start ; Re-install; and Re-format". Of these an operator of a client station could resort only to the first option and that's what  he had been doing for over half an hour. I went to the post master and She for her part upgraded the trouble shooting effort. She restarted the Server !

I decided to move over to the next counter to update my PPF account and to make a deposit. Again it was a similar scene with a lady staring  at a monitor screen. It was a different server. 

I asked her if I could access the account online. She gave a frustrated look, "server  ki wajah se to delay ho raha hai" (She was working on the server and that's why it was taking more time) . 

Later I came too know that the problem was not with the server but with the 'served' . She just couldn't decipher the contents of the page she had been served. After what seemed a long long time, an all knowing youngster came to help her. He said, that a transaction has to be done to see the statement! I was asked to deposit Rs 2000. It was OK with me as that's what I had gone there for. Challan filled, money collected and data feeding started and then came the long wait again. For some reason, the lady started calling for the 'expert' again  . The way she repeatedly invoked the name of "Ghanshyam ", even Krishna Parmatma would have come down from his heavenly abode, but there was no sign of this Ghanshyam. There was that tone of urgency in her voice , since a 'time out ' would mean refilling all the details.  The pleading tone did have some effect and the help arrived. 

"Submit " button daba doon (Shall I press the submit button) Oh, it was for this confirmation that she needed an "expert" ? 

Permission obtained, data submitted , both were looking keenly at the response on the monitor. How I wish I had access to the screen they were staring at! Finally, Ghanshyam informed me with an absolutely sorry look ," Minimum amount, the system would accept would be Rs 5400, as you have not deposited for over 3 years" . Fortunately , there was an ATM of a private bank nearby,and the correct amount was deposited and the transaction was committed on the server. I am sure that was the only transaction done by that lady for the day.  

As I was leaving the Post office, I just happened to glance at the Speed Post Counter to see some activity on the printer. So, the 50th restart had worked ?!  I asked him if he could try now. he said in a sing song voice "Khosish karenge..... . Ho jaata .......to ...bahut achcha hoga" (I'll try and if it works, fine) . After four envelopes, when my turn came , the system hanged again. He looked at me, amused yet accusingly ,declaring that the system hanged as soon as he had fed the data pertaing to my letter! Mea Culpa !! But he was kind enough to restart again and this time it worked !

Everyone was so nice and wanting to be so helpful yet were so helpless . Now that all transactions are online , there is no looking back. So,  they have no other option but to look back and yell for "GhanShyam " or whosoever could coax a server into action  on that day .

 

A Bicycle Lamp and Bell

I am regular reader of Open page of The Hindu.  Here's an article by Ashokamitran .

The writer gives a humorous account of his tryst with the law on traffic violation. The violation happened to be 'not having a properly working bell on his Bicycle'.  The infringement takes him to the court , where he pays a fine and finally , armed with the receipt from the court, he retrieves his bicycle from the police station.

 Today, the story sounds so exaggerated and even fictitious , but I know it is very much true. In early seventies,  I have seen cyclists in the  twilight hour ,looking for a match box to light their  lamps. Then the introduction of the Dynamo light was a great improvement and convenience. 

Nothing tells more about an issue than the jokes it evokes in the weekly magazines,(like Kumudam and Vikatan) much like the whatsapp jokes today. The magazines those days had many cartoons on the plight of an erring cyclist and a policeman. I distinctly remember a  few lines from a play in our school days . It goes like this, 

Cyclist :why do I need light, the whole town is lit up? 

and the policeman deflates his tyres saying,"why do you need air in your tyre, the whole place is full of air ? Ha ha. 

Coming to the present, I still use a bicycle and at times I miss a simple bicycle lamp. I went to my favourite cycle shop at Mhow bazaar to correct the situation. As  is customary in Mhow, the shop was small enough to repair a punctured tube and big enough to sell and service a 15-gear Bicycle. But when I asked for a Cycle lamp, there was a look of disbelief and some smirking all around as if I had asked for the moon. I continued to keep a straight face indicating that it was a serious question and I was still waiting for a serious answer. Gradually the smirking stopped and one of the guys replied "Saab yahan chal jaata hai" (You can do without it here). 

How have we come to this state where it is perfectly OK to ride motorcycles without helmet, or for four adults to travel on a motorcycle and the number of people or stores on a bicycle is limited only by the pedaling  power of the cyclist? Lamps and bells are not even available leave alone being mandatory. Anyway, I scouted for one online and placed an order, and I intend using it however ridiculous it might look on the streets of Mhow.

Who Stole My MIlk ? - Facebook Style !

I am totally indebted to the face book philosophers for this post. The name of the game is "who stole my milk ?"

 To begin with , you pick up a photo of a hungry looking child like the one on the left. I picked up the first image answering to the search 'hungry child'; Just avoid African and Whites as the game involves some serious 'India bashing'.

The next step is to find  the villain who could have stolen the milk from the Child. If not stolen , you can always argue that 'so and so ' is so well off that it would be a sin if he /they do not provide milk to the Child.


The villain could be anyone who is involved in  expending some milk. It could also be symbolically expressed by just show of wealth. A lot depends on who is your target. If you think the govt is to blame ... then show a Govt partying... Add a caption ,

they have laddoos to celebrate but no milk for a hungry child



In case  you are anti-corporate , bring in Vijay Mallaya.

The banks have 9000 crores for Mallya and none for the hungry child

Peaceniks  can always go after the Hawks crying for a higher defence budget. They can  come up with “Cost of one Fighter aircraft can feed all the hungry children in the country !” Even The OROP bill for 8000 crores can be attacked !


Of course the easiest target is  religion . Get a picture of an idol being offered milk ... or cash being counted at a religious place. Imagine,   the amount of money  people spend on God; If only this money is spent on the poor , there would be no child going to bed hungry. (It's a different matter , that had there been no temples, this money would most likely be used to make Vijay Mallya and the like richer)

 You can even blame  the farmers . There was a news report from Odisha about three weeks back, that the farmers emptied a milk tanker letting 14000 litres of milk flowing on to  the street. No use crying over spilt milk; they were just protesting against a company not accepting the quality of milk they supplied.  news report

The scope is tremendous; you can do IPL bashing or F-1 Race bashing if you don't like sports. With some imagination you can make even children feel guilty. How ? throw some statistics like "70% of the milk produce is used for making Ice Cream and Confectionery " So any ice cream eating or chocolate eating child is literally eating into the minimum protein requirement of a poor , hungry child; isn't it ? One photo does it all; depends on where you place it.

The Other Train Journey in SA

  

       Anyone with a nodding acquaintance with the life of mahatma Gandhi would be familiar with the story of Gandhiji being unceremoniously thrown out from a First Class Compartment in South Africa. 

To quote  Louis Fischer,

.............The incident occurred at At Maritzburg, the capital of Natal, in 1893.Gandhi could have returned to the train and found a place in the third class car. But he chose to remain in the station waiting room. It was cold in the mountains. His overcoat was in his luggage which the railway people were holding; afraid to be insulted again, he did not ask for it. All night long, he sat and shivered, and brooded. ..... That bitter night at Maritzburg the germ of social protest was born in Gandhi. ................

From an ordinary lawyer, the transformation to an extraordinary world leader had started.

    

What is lesser known is the other journey that transformed Gandhi's life and indirectly India's destiny was another rail journey Gandhiji undertook in 1904.

       During the period from 1893 to 1904, Gandhiji continued to practice as a lawyer at Johannesburg. He took up all kinds of issues affecting the Indian Community in South Africa , through every available forum,  for redressal, but he was essentially a successful Indian lawyer.

      In 1903, Gandhi had helped to start a weekly magazine called Indian Opinion. The paper was in difficulties, and to cope with them at first hand Gandhi took a trip to Durban where the magazine was published.  By then he had found a close friend in Henry S. L. Polak, a London born Jew who totally involved himself in the Indians' cause in Transvaal. Polak saw him off at the station and gave him a book to read for the long journey. It was John Ruskin's Unto This Last.

      As Gandhiji himself says in 'My Experiments with Truth" 

"It gripped me. Johannesburg to Durban was a twenty-four hours' journey. The train reached there in the evening. I could not get any sleep that night. I determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book," Gandhi wrote.

    

"I believe that I discovered some of my deepest convictions in this great book," he wrote, adding the work "captured me and made me transform my life."

Again to quote Louis Fischer,

 ........Those books appealed to him most which were closest to his concept of life and, where they deviated, he brought them closer by interpreting them. 'It was a habit with me'. Gandhi once wrote, 'to forget what I did not like and to carry out in practice whatever I liked.'........

        At the end of the journey , he was fully convinced of the course of action he should take. He wrote a long letter to his elder brother  to be relieved of the financial commitments to his family. It was his brother who had sent him to London to study law. He bought a piece of land to establish an Ashram. It was called Phoenix farm. The rail journey took place in Oct 1904 and in Nov 1904, Phoenix farm was born.

 

      It took him another year to completely close down his establishment at Johannesburg , but thereafter , he never looked back. In South Africa it was Phoenix Farm and later Tolstoy Farm. Back in India it was  Sabarmati Ashram and later Warda Ashram that  became the hub of Indian freedom Struggle.

       Gandhiji had a wonderful faculty of translating into practice anything that appealed to his intellect. Some of the changes he had made in his life were as prompt as they were radical.

       He did not preach but just practiced what appealed to him . When asked by a someone as to what was his message to the world , he could simply say,          

                             My life is my message