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

 

Ancient Christianity in India

The story of Christianity in India is fascinating, and I may have mentioned, my great-grand-dad has also published a book on this topic, which I have a copy of. It is written in a quaint Victorian sort of English, which was how the language was in the early 1900s. My great-grand-dad. K.G. Shesha Aiyer, was Chief Justice of Travancore and was a close associate of C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, who was Dewan of Travancore.  His house was in a place called Thekkad in Trivananthapuram.

 

There is some debate about the exact time of arrival of Christianity in India. The folklore places it at 52 AD with Saint Thomas. But I was talking to some physicians from the Christian Medical College, Vellore, recently, and they showed me papers that argue that the arrival was a century or two later. Regardless, an original version of early Christianity arrived and existed in India 13-1500 years before the arrival of the Vasco de Gama and subsequent aggressive Catholic proselytization which was largely a tool to assist colonization.

 

What is important is that the early Christians ("Syrian Christians") were welcomed by the Hindu population and were very Christian in faith but very Hindu in their customs and culture, even observing the caste hierarchy, marriage, birth and several death rituals. There was no tension between the Christian and Hindu communities and they peacefully coexisted. Ironically, the arrival of Catholicism from Portugal and later from Ireland, created tensions between the old and new Christians, with the latter forcing India's "Syrian Christians" to shift to Latin and to give up their "pagan ways". 

 

A theology scholar once told me that "If you want to understand the true teachings of the historical Jesus, you need to study the early Christian fellowships in Syria, Egypt, Greece, Russia, India". Another expert said, "Christianity started in the Middle-east as a fellowship, became politics in Europe, and has become marketing in America."

 

Venkat

 

PS: Islam also first arrived in Kerala through peaceful ways, and it was only centuries later when the Islamic invaders (colonizers) started using the faith for political purposes did the aggression and tensions begin. The point cannot be lost that aggressive proselytization and politicization of any faith is dangerous.

Tolerance - is it a product of structure or of culture?

Copenhagen, 7 August 2017

Tolerance - is it a product of structure or of culture?

Denmark clearly functions as a tolerant society. But from talking to folks here and from observation, it... appears that the tolerance is very much a product of structure. People and society are very tolerant as long as individuals follow the "rules" and stay within the established "norm". For example, any deviation from the rule is quickly pointed out. If a biker innocently breaks a rule, a few people on the road remind him/her firmly (almost rudely). Sides of stairs to a swimming pool are marked "wet side" and "dry side", and I ended up using the wrong side as I needed to hold the rails on the right side. I was told I am breaking the rule! Same with elevators.

My friends here tell me that the normally polite behavior changes when people drink and then conversations can get profane and rude. I have not seen this part. In many ways, Danish society and its normative rule-driven personality reminds me of a Japan or a Germany or a Singapore. Tolerance in daily life seems largely a product of structure. What happens then if rules and structure established for a certain context (homogenous population, industrial economy, etc) get challenged due to changes? Will structure change or fight to retain status quo? Is there also another route to tolerance, one more innate and culturally created with less rules and laws that can flexibly accommodate to change in a dynamic adaptive way?

Why is Hinduism so Complex?

Somebody asked me why Hinduism was so complex and in what ways Hindu belief structure differed from the Abrahamic faiths.  This was the list I created: 

There are some basic differences in the belief system and structure between the Indian religions and the Abrahamic ones, notably: 

1. Hindu belief starts from an early agnostic position of accepting uncertainty. This is very evident in the Nasadiyasukta hymn of creation in the Rig Veda, Chapter 10.
2. The Hindu concept of “Ultimate truth” or “Brahman” is formless, abstract, non-personal, inclusive of the existent and nonexistent, and thus allows even an atheist to relate to. It is a non-deistic concept.
3. The early Hindu conceptualization of time and space is very different in that:  time is viewed in incredibly longer scales (almost close to estimations from modern physics), cycles of creation/destruction, space is viewed as expansive and not fixed, inclusive of the existent (matter) and non-existent (non-matter).
4. Everything in the universe, including all life, is viewed as “divine” or “good” innately, not as “sinners needing salvation”
5. Ethical code is not prescribed, but left to each individual to figure out based on their stage of evolution and own sense of their “Dharma”.
6. Path to enlightenment is again left to the individual to choose from among various approaches – Devotion, Knowledge, Work.
7. There is no common requirement across the traditions to adhere to any set of rules other than “follow your own Dharma”
8. The authors of the earliest scriptures are not known, and even early on, a vast array of scriptures (Vedas), counter-scriptures (Nastikas), and arguments (Upanishads) arose. Over time, these grew even more chaotically with the Puranas, the Yoga Sutras, and the main epics, Ramayana, Mahabharata
9. There is no one prophet or head, but numerous, so very decentralized by definition.
10. Has allowed embracing of multiple beliefs within its own fold (agnostic, atheistic, nontheistic, monotheistic, personal god, polytheism, animism, nature worship are all accepted as fine and not in conflict)

When you think of the above 10 items, it does allow for much greater complexity and less structure or uniformity – which is why I think the Indian system is very complex.

 

 

United States of Poor Health: Reflections on Fourth of July 2018

United States of Poor Health: Reflections on Fourth of July 2018


            Exactly this day 242 years ago, with the signing of the “Declaration of Independence”, a young and idealistic Republic was founded with the premise that “All men are created equal” and are endowed with the “unalienable rights” of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is worth taking stock of the current state of health of this rather remarkable country, which has so believed in its exceptionalism.


            As I write this, as part of the celebration, 285 million pounds of fireworks, costing over a billion dollars will light up the skies, temporarily raising airborne pollution by about 42% - hardly a responsible statement against one of the biggest threats of this century – Climate Warming.

Amidst these Fourth of July celebrations, nearly 700 people will head to hospital Emergency Rooms with fire injuries, and about seven may die. While these seven unnatural deaths are seven too many, the nation’s annual toll from gun violence presents a truly shocking picture: 61,331 gun incidents, 344 mass shootings, 31,197 injuries, 15,549 gun-related deaths of whom 737 are children aged 0-11 years and 3232 are teenagers aged 12-17 years. (Gun Violence Archive, 2017)  The US leads the world with the highest number of people incarcerated – nearly, 2.3 million people are in jails, the majority presumed innocent, and some race minority groups disproportionately represented. (Prison Policy Initiative) 

While almost all of the countries of the world are experiencing rapidly increasing life expectancy, the US for two years in a row has experienced a decline in life expectancy.  The shocking news is that the population most affected by this trend of declining life expectancy is adult White males. Factors such as the Opioid and substance abuse epidemic, poor mental health, homicides and suicides seem to be driving these excess deaths. Furthermore, the gaps in life expectancy between the richest and poorest Americans is now over 14 years – with the poorest in the US having life expectancy similar to people in Malawi. The US with 26.4 female deaths per 100,000 live births has the highest maternal mortality rate among all rich countries, and is among a handful of countries worldwide where maternal mortality rates are increasing.

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and yet, diet continues to be dominated by commercial forces favoring fast food, high corn, high-sugar, and heavy meat consumption.  Americans gorged nearly 100 billion pounds of red meat in 2017. Each year, nearly 20 billion Hot Dogs are eaten, almost 155 million on Fourth of July alone when the nation merrily indulges in celebratory picnics and barbecues, quite oblivious to the health and environmental effects of heavy meat consumption.

            For a country that has achieved so much in its brief history, the current state of health presents grave threats. Despite spending over 17% of its GDP on healthcare, the country’s health, on average, is among the poorest across all high-income countries. Furthermore, vast disparities in health persist and expand: the poorest counties have 8-10 fold rates of cardiovascular mortality and diabetes incidence compared to the richest counties in the country. Only a fraction of these variations is explained by healthcare factors, while sociopolitical factors, such as poverty, unemployment, crime, explain the largest proportion of health disparities. According to the Economist, in the 2016 US Presidential elections, the strongest area-level predictor of voter preference was poor health, even after accounting for demography, race, income, and unemployment. The areas with the poorest health voted for the candidate who won.  Presidential candidate Trump in 2016 blamed immigrants for causing White unemployment and used that message to win votes. Yet, counties with high immigrant populations have low unemployment and poverty rates, and generally better health for all Americans.


            This Fourth of July, Americans need to wake up from their illusion of exceptionalism, and face the facts of the country’s declining health in all seriousness.  That would be true patriotism.