Polyglot India

    The truth is what we call “India” is a massive polyglot of several thousands of “tribes” (based on religions,     languages, castes, other factors). The very fact that such a large population with such diversity was brought     together under a constitution and a functioning system was achieved is a huge testament to the founders.

A lofty tone of “unity in diversity” is the only way that place can survive, the moment populism is used to invoke divisions (for political gains), the place starts to regress and fragment. All through post-Independent history, various politicians have used divisive politics to win votes, but the big difference now is a very systematic process of creating a big chasm (sadly invoking religion) across a huge divide and also undermining the independent institutions that afforded some bulwark for democracy to succeed.

Some years ago, commemorating the 50th anniversary of modern India, the National Geographic described India as a political success and called it the “boldest experiment in democracy ever attempted”.

Undoing this is easy, and the price will be paid in ways unimaginable. All said and done, sense may yet prevail, and as Mrs. Gandhi once said in an interview “India somehow always manages to rise to the occasion even at the brink of self-created disaster” or as Edward Luce in his book “India: In Spite of the Gods” time again refers to the marvels of innovative survival that characterizes that place – may these truisms be true!

Venkat

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 Eid Mubarak 2021

As Eid sets a somber visitation on India this year, my mind travels back to some beautiful memories growing up as a young boy in a simple India where humanity trumped superficial differences. My class-mates, Moosa and Osman would bring “Mittai” to school and share with their favorite friends (I remain one still). Basith Uncle (my uncle’s friend) would visit us and deliver sweets to my grandparents, and I would be among the first to taste the Halwa. Naseer Uncle (my mother’s close friend) would visit to greet “Jaya Sister” and would take the kids for a masala dosa. The highlight one year was an Eid party at the palatial home of my friend Farook Sait, and it was the sort of wealth that someone like me from a lower middle-class home would be dazzled by.

Brigade Road, Commercial Street, Avenue Road would all be so festive, and no one cared who was Muslim or who was Hindu or who was Christian. Everyone wished everyone else “Eid Mubarak”, and there was never any barrier between people. Humans just cared for one another. The same happened on Diwali or Christmas.

Now, the India of our past seems at loggerheads with the pluralism that has defined that civilization for millennia – but I was heartened from the many Eid greetings that I received today, and the best of them all from Rukhshana Basith Lakshman, who simply said “Pray for India, as we ache over the fact that more shrouds are sold on Eid than new clothes.” This too shall pass. Eid Mubarak to all.

– Venkat

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Thinking "thanks" - Thanksgiving 2020

 Thinking "thanks" - Thanksgiving 2020

An occasion to thank life for everything it has offered - the good, the bad, the ugly. The exhilarating highs and the spectacular lows. The great joys and the excruciating pains. The great successes and wonderful failures. The ever-changing ephemeral nature of life, and the seeming illusion of temporary permanence.

Above all, a big gratitude for the amazing journey of living, learning, and loving, and living, learning, and loving, over and over again. A life of living and lived experience, with the continuous nourishment of curiosity, compassion, and romance, active days and the deep slumber of night.

The purpose of life is life itself, needs no other seeking of meaning, no prompts or crutches, where true joy is in the amazement of discovery and learning, to understand, to create, and to navigate complexity, and being agnostic to cause and consequence of every phenomena.

It is but a mysterious game, this life, and we are but in the transience of our own carbon cycles. It is what we make it to be, and everything relies on our own ability, our own ability alone, to view all things with equanimity and grace, to appreciate the good and the bad, the joys and the pain, and to use our reason and thoughts to guide us to greater resilience and adaptiveness, without resort to regrets or to blame.

The best part of life is living with the knowledge that when our moment arrives to exit, we can exit with joy knowing full well that we have given to our lives everything we have had to give, and have taken from it everything that there is to take.

Never judging the deck of cards we were served with, neither gloating nor complaining, but holding ourselves to playing the best game possible with the cards we were and are served. Therein lies the ultimate experience, embracing all things being and nonbeing, with a spirit of freedom, curiosity, learning, adventure, and oneness - belonging to all and belonging to none at one and the same time.

Let Freedom Reign

K.M. Venkat Narayan

December 23, 2007.

(Inspired by a visit to New Delhi) 

 

Crass class and caste,

Won’t you leave modern India fast?

The subservient culture of Madam and Sir,

Won’t you soon into meritocracy blur?

 

Why I ask,

That the populace still bask,

In archaic traditions

Of status, titles, and positions?

 

If you are the world’s largest democracy,

Why do you preserve a grinding bureaucracy?

Which stifles free spirit,

And breaks human grit?

 

If you are a rising power,

Why do you fret the blooming flower?

The past is but an ugly weed,

The future begs to be freed.

 

It is time to call a spade a spade,

To end the culture of servant and maid,

Of patronizing charity,

And hypocritically pious austerity.  

 

For communal harmony, as you can tell,

Your beloved Father fell.

Yet, after sixty years of strife,

Such tensions are still rife.

 

To keep you enslaved,

The colonials a civil code engraved,

Isn’t it ironic?

You have embraced this system true and demonic.

 

From your past, it is time to break out,

And to live up to your growing clout.

The world sees your growing might,

But that won’t come without a fight.

 

Wake up, and rise,

Before the window of hope dies.

Free up your people,

And let them scale the steeple.

 

Let freedom reign,

And the Sirs and Madams wane,

Let the chauffeur drive his dream,

In the land of opportunity let everyone beam. 

 

May that heaven of freedom

Hail the brave and end the chiefdom.

May ideas, merit, and self-worth rule

In an honest world that none can fool.

Christina Rossetti's poem When I am dead, my dearest

I have always felt that to live a free, enjoyable, and purposeful life, one ought to start by accepting death as something not to be denied or feared or to have to create myths about. Death is inevitable, and accepting that reality and finality without any fear and yet living life fully with hope, joy, curiosity, compassion, open-mindedness, and romance is the key. This needs no crutch of myth but an acceptance of reality and uncertainty. I love this poem for expressing that beautiful detached peaceful acceptance of the finality of death without longing for anything after that. There are a number of verses in Tagore's Gitanjali where he expresses a similar sentiment, and views death as something to welcome when it comes to us, especially after a fulfilling life. This is why I find all the euphemisms about death, the prevailing stigma to talk about it, the death rituals/ceremonies in most religions all as impediments to true liberation of the self (both in life when lived, and in death when dead) and of the eventual finite reality of life, and it’s here and now. – Venkat

 

When I am dead, my dearest

By Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet;

And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

 

I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale

Sing on, as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget.

 

 

Tribute to the saree

The saree has to be one of the most clever and elegant of dresses. A uniform-sized cloth for all, so egalitarian, but an amazing array of variations in how it can be worn - at least, 108 classic styles of wearing it, and innumerable variations within each. 

 

All kinds of colors and prints, material from light hand loom cotton to expensive silks. Can be worn by the young and the old, in the most open and revealing way or in the most closed and conservative manner. 

 

The same Saree can be changed dynamically to suit the mood and weather, can be worn differently each time, sometimes stylishly draped low and at other times a little higher. Not at the whim of a tailor or a fixed cut, but something that gives the freedom to the wearer to shape it any way and at any time. 

 

The drape can be used for multiple purposes - as a little cosy cover to draw a lover into intimate private embrace or a child into warmth or used for something more utilitarian like carrying fruits or as a cover from the sun - you name it!  

 

To the Saree, the finest dress of feminine grace and a statement of female power and versatility - I salute!!

 

Venkat

Qualities of outstanding researchers/leaders

Someone asked me for a list of "5 attributes" that I think differentiates the outstanding researchers/leaders (top 1-2%) from the pack.

 

I think being smart is not enough. Most people in competitive academia are smart, but what gives the outstanding ones the edge are the following qualities:

 

1. Willingness to take on the "impossible" - Motivation and Creativity

2. Incurable optimism - Positive thinking

3. Healthy ego - Confidence and self-belief

4. Continuous learning, self-reflection, and taking criticism - Humility

5. Clear, crisp, concise, and energizing communication

 

Venkat