An Unholy Mess

Back to blogging after a yawning gap of 6 months...

Today I was surfing through some episodes of KBC to rekindle my fond childhood memories of Amitabh's inimitable anchoring style and in the process, earn a wee bit of GK! And one question just confounded me and motivated me to write a blog entry.

According to Brahmandapurana, who was the father of Goddess Saraswati??

Narada, Brahma, Shiva or Krishna

The contestant was equally flummoxed then. He easily ruled out Krishna and Narada, but the rest of the options sounded equiprobable to him. Implementing the 50:50, he was left with Narada and Brahma. He chose Brahma which eventually proved to be correct.

Now it was a puzzling scenario for me. I remember my early childhood days when my mother enthusiastically taught me the relations between the members of the Hindu Divine Family. All that was told to me then was that Saraswati was the wife of Lord Brahma!

Quickly I sought the Internet for a clarification. The results I got were dumbfounding. 

"Brahma is one of the three main gods-Trimurti-of the Hindu pantheon. He is the creator of the universe, Saraswati, who became the wife of her own father, was the daughter of Brahma. There are two stories about her genesis in the "Saraswati Purana". One is that Brahma created his beautiful daughter Saraswati direct from his "vital strength" or seminal fluid. The other is that Brahma used to collect his semen in a pot whenever he masturbated fixing his carnal eyes on the celestial beauty Urvasi. Brahma's semen in the pot gave birth to Saraswati. Thus, Saraswati had no mother. 

This daughter or grand-daughter of Brahma is the Hindu goddess of learning. When Brahma saw the beauty of Saraswati he became amorous. To escape from her father's passionate approach Saraswati ran to the lands in all four directions, but she could not escape from her father. She succumbed to Brahma's wish. Brahma and his daughter Saraswati lived as husband and wife indulging in incest for 100 years. They had a son Swayambhumaru. Swayambhumaru made love with his sister Satarpa. Through the incest of Brahma's son and daughter Brahma got two grandsons and two grand-daughters."

Well... This piece could be quite galling for many of you "pure" Hindus as well I believe. While it is quite another issue if these mythological Gods and Goddesses existed at all, even to hear amorous stories involving Divine beings is certainly ridiculous. After all, who else but Gods can serve as moral teachers to the common people? From the times of Stone Age, the feeling of a God has kept people within invisible moral confines. 

The glorious teachings of Hinduism are undoubtedly unparalleled by any other religion. The divinity of such a religion should not be lost upon the up and coming generations. If stories such as this are propagted, the better and higher truths will never dawn upon the fresher minds - instead, it will simply amount to making a Holy Religion the butt of fools' ridicule.

PS: Why do quizzers even ask such controversial questions? What purposes do they solve, other than inciting irritated people to write a blog on them?

The Kannada Safari

These days every telecommunication and semiconductor concern marches forward towards Bangalore on its very arrival to India. Towards the end of my under-graduation, it became apparent to me that I needed to be mentally prepared to stay at Bangalore for a considerable time in my life and career. In such circumstances, a weird idea struck me one fine morning. Why not learn the local language? Kannada!

Forget the sweltering heat of Chennai; as for twenty years I had warmed myself in Chennai and Tamil. All along my school education, teachers and books had kept telling me that Tamil alone is the most ancient of all languages and it is the sweetest of all as well. That was followed by a series of essays and stories on the morality, loyalty, bravery and blah blah blah of Tamil rulers and people. Almost no election is fought in Tamil Nadu without a mention of Tamil. That the current CM is an extremely talented Tamil poet and dramatist himself is a different story. This has always been a land where the language is worshipped by the people – quite unlike Orissa, a state where the CM manages to survive without even knowing Oriya!

So much for TN. I had a genuine opportunity at hand to verify the veracity of what my school teachers had imposed on me. The only way to find if one language is superior to another is to know to speak, read and write both languages. Prior to this, I had a misconception that I had utilized the Internet in every possible way. But mastering a language is no mean job and is much more difficult than to study techie aspects. Each of the three languages I know was learnt over a period of several years. A boost came with a cartoon of the “Health Capsules” – it said our lifetime increased with every new language that we learnt! Whether I followed every advice of Health Capsules can be reserved for a different argument. (Especially advices like the one to drink bowel prep liquids for prompt diagnosis of colon cancer ;)) Nevertheless I thrust myself the task of decoding Kannada…

The process began as it had for my mother tongue – letters first. Strangely, the mind began to correlate every letter of the alphabet with some character that I had already seen before in life. It was a nerve-wracking experience, especially when you get to feel that you see only a Greek “omega” everywhere, twisted here and there according to some being’s whims and fancies. I patiently bided time. There was one time when papers around me were littered with Kannada alphabets and members of my family looked down upon me as if I were drawing weird figures! They could have well presumed that I had fallen in love!

Quickly I unlocked the Kannada channels on my television. In hindsight, it could be a great move, as Kannada people block Tamil cable channels almost quite immediately when there is a feud between the states! I began to focus my eyes on the flash news in Kannada news channels. It proved a great exercise – I identified the miniscule differences between alphabets that were looking by and large similar. I also ended up learning new letters that were missed out in the internet – like half-stressing a letter in my own name (Shyam, just as they do in Hindi), having different notations for “ru” sound (like in maat’ru’bhaasha). Of LSRW, Reading and Writing are done!

Awaiting next was a greater challenge (LS) – comprehending what the native speakers spoke and to speak the language myself! Of course, it is an ongoing process and not something to which any form of timeframe could be allotted. Even today new words in Tamil seem to be created by the movies. One catchy word and the entire youth seem to be using it as a part of their everyday lingo! My main intent was to learn day-to-day Kannada – at least to the extent of conversing freely with auto-drivers, bus conductors, vendors and house-owners without the fear of being identified as a Tamizhan! Come on, who wants to comprehend Purandara Dasa at 21?!

My human tendencies reached their acme at this stage of the learning process. I felt almost every word in Kannada similar to the equivalent Tamil or Hindi word. The tense forms and the basic grammar (like the differences between usey, ussey, uska, uskeliye, usko etc in Hindi) were the ones that had the core variations. “I want” read “Enakku vendum” in Tamil and “Nanage Beku” in Kannada: so simple, isn’t it? Some ambiguities arose as well – Yen was “why” in Tamil while Yenu in Kannada translated to “What”!

While I have absolutely zero intentions of transforming this blog to some form of Kannada tutorials, I got to apprise you of other lessons that I learnt apart from the language itself. Given Kannada and Telugu share a script and that almost all of the words in the language bear a semblance with either Hindi or Tamil, isn’t a regional influence on the origin of language becoming starkly apparent?

We talk about patriotism and fidelity to the nation; we talk proudly of belonging to a state and a language; and unmindful of our wants we are identified in the society by our caste and religion. Battles are fought over recognizing the oldest of languages; researches are pursued over identifying, approving and improving the so-called classical languages. Politicians have accorded cult status to languages and religions. But after all, the fundamental truth is blatantly out in the open – everyone is the same.

It is time we forget and forgo boundaries and differences caused due to them. It is time we looked at a sports match between two nations as just one between two sets of talented individuals. Technology is often rebuked for reducing our life expectancy – remember it is the same technology that has brought together people from entirely different walks together and merged them without even the spot of a seam. There never existed differences – every patriotic thought or opinion that we possess today are merely ones that have been forced on us without our own knowledge right in our childhood. We simply carry the burden of wars fought long back; borders drawn ages ago; anthems sung in the past.

In that sense, I realize that I am not anything more than my name. God didn’t create India – how can I be an Indian? God didn’t create Tamil Nadu or Tamil as well! Neither were the religions or castes… Human beings haven’t simply multiplied and spread their progeny. They have infested their next generation with their own ideas. Exceptions that arose to such opinions were way less when compared with the number that faithfully carried it on to the succeeding generation!

That’s the biggest lesson I would take from my Kannada safari – to truly become a world citizen in my mind, heart, soul and spirit.

How important Attitude is in Life.........

It's a difficult task that I have thrust upon myself now. To write an article about something I always lack, yet am equally keen forever to ensure that it coalesces with the rest of my attributes.

Attitude is something which can peak you to great altitudes in life. Not just for the sake of rhythm did I mention that. Personally, I have come out of dogged days and periods of inactivity or lull only with the aid of attitude. It is that sort of a dagger that can tear apart the veils of indolence thereby exposing real and luminous talents. It constantly reminds one of the significance of consistent improvement. It does enough to ensure that we don't go off-track from the original path.

There have been some very difficult periods in my life. I had the eagerness to study and understand new things, yet I was curbed by a feeling of satisfaction that overtook me once I knew "What is What". I felt impotent that I was not able to delve deep into the underlying Mathematical beauties or Physical meanings. The single book that I used to read was not capable of providing me with any perfect salvation on the topic. There seemed no way out - like being surmounted by a giant wall and needing to look for a minute interstice thereupon.

Events other than the ones concerning academics forced me to pass through days where I had little other stuff to focus upon. I plunged into my studies and swam with the solitary motive of touching the floor. Slowly an attitude built by itself - to focus, focus and re-focus. A single book was never going to be sufficient to understand 
anything for a persevering engineer. I gathered all resources, and while doing so thanked my seniors who had toiled all day and night to bring about this thing called the Internet. Resources started falling into the respective places on my desktop PC. Thirst of knowledge increased dramatically, I never stopped with just the definition.

Again, this attitude came about naturally and I never spent time trying to create it. So, the destruction also came as smoothly as its formation. I became a wanderlust again and the journey of life resumed with the same old craving present previously.

Note: There may be students of Engineering going through this blog. My kind request to all of you people is to fully exploit the Internet. Almost every great book on any subject is there (here.. somewhere[ ;)]). By restricting yourself to the lecturer's notes and prescribed textbooks, you are denying you self an opportunity to understand,innovate and specialise.  

Try to evolve the habit of studying from e-books - its a luxury today but a necessity tomorrow.

Blogging - A Perspective

Why should I waste time blogging?? Or so I thought even as I was prompted by the Orkut's view of blogs to make a blog for myself.

The views of an individual on a society are hardly going to rock it or shake it. Memories of the past become meaningless with the passage of time. Men are born, men die and only their noble actions survive the crucial test of time. So, how on earth does blogging help to enhance the reputation of men without giving the feeling that they have only spent their luscious free time with a ridiculous activity?

I feel differently. To me blogs are not posts to share my views with the people of the World. It is just a diary from which I can always refer and study my evolution as a human being. Had this been there some ten years ago, today I would have had with me a written proof of how childish I was then. For today's schoolgoers and youth alike, this is a fantastic opportunity to preserve their day-to-day feelings for posterity. 

So that's it, whatever the reasons be, I am here to document my past, starting with May 2004 when my college journey began. It may not be for interesting, it's just my travel through the days, but it is mainly for the men of the future.