October 5, 2011
I have never shied away from engaging in stupid tasks. So if I were to rank the Indian festivals according to my liking in school days, as if such a list mattered, the puja holidays, particularly Mahanavami, wins hands down. It is a day of pens down, pencils down, textbooks down...in general, all tools down. There might be some goodness in the idea of worshiping one's tools, the instruments of trade, treating them with respect for one day of the year. But I think Indians tend to carry it too far, as usual, and can be seen routinely submitting to the "mercy" of machines! Even recently, I saw the helpless, reverential look on the face of some bankers and officials behind the payment counter of BSNL when they say "system down". The 'system' is a whimsical god. Newspaper reports here routinely hype "mechanical" faults as if they are divine interventions and attempts to repair are DOA because nobody wants to mess with the heavens!
I hadn't cast such a philosophical look at Mahanavami when I was in school. It was simply a day that Amma won't ask me to go and study. A day worth celebrating. After school days, the "puja" shrunk from being a 24 hour affair to an overnight ritual. Pens and select books will find a symbolic place near the gods for just the night of Mahanami. They would be back in business early morning on Vijayadashami day.
Today, symbolically five books have made it to the holy stack. Kunjikuttan Thampuran's magnum opus Mahabharatham, forms the hardbound, Malayalam base. Then a very thin volume on "Developments in the Financial Markets". On top of this is Patricia Fara's magnificent 'Science: A Four Thousand Year History'. And above all 'The Best Poems of the English Language' compiled by Alissa Heyman. Amma's Flair writo-meter felt tip pen and my Jaguar fountain pen find themselves on top of this stack with some yellow ixora flowers, garden-fresh! Amma lit the two brass 'salabhanjika' figurines besides the lamp this evening. Devotional bhakti is certainly not the first emotion that comes to my mind when I look at those beauties. Or may be it is a form of devotion.
Later in the evening, Achan formed a two book stack by the side with his pen on top. Thunjathu Ezhuthachan's AdhyatmaRamayanam and Lalita Sahasranamam. He has also kept a writing pad ready on which we can write "Harishree" tomorrow morning to end the puja.
One of the habits I had acquired in the USA is.... not what you are thinking! I tend to email authors whose work enlighten, inspire and entertain me. Obviously I am not talking about engineering journals. This was a difficult habit to come by for someone growing up in India because of the constant exposure to tight-lipped, anal retentive, ego-maniacal 'scholars' and teachers usually found in this land. So I was pleasantly surprised back in 1999 when Scott Adams, as in the Scott Adams, replied within a couple of hours to a casual email invitation to speak at IIT. It was my first inkling that creators of timeless stuff are not necessarily time-less.
Early last decade, I read the life transforming "Sex, Time and Power" by Dr. Leonard Shlain. This was the period I was shamelessly indulging in out-of-the-word theories about the origins of life. So the morning after finishing his book, I despatched Dr. Shlain an email, listing some of my fantasies. After lunch, I came back to my desk to find a detailed and encouraging reply on my desktop. In 2009, I exchanged emails with Dr. Dale Russell about his insightful "Islands in the Cosmos". In 2010, Dr. Richard Gombrich responded to what I thought he is thinking wrong in his "What the Buddha thought".
So, though I take receiving replies for granted now, I was a little apprehensive about emailing Ravi Menon whose "So jaa rajakumari" mentioned in yesterday's note had left me with an emotional high when I was done with it this morning. After all, he is an Indian, I thought. Like me, I should have added but rarely do! His email id given with the bio in the book was too tempting. I shot him an email saying how much I enjoyed the work and wished it was translated and made available online with youtube links to the couple of hundred songs mentioned. Mr. Menon responded before noon linking me to his blog. His blog is basically scanned uploads of his published articles. It is all in Malayalam, so non-mallus reading this will have to wait for me to keep posting the songs with anecdotes over the next few weeks.
By 7pm, Kurien Issac Sir came to pick me up for dinner with his family. He and Achan swapped stories about their school days in Thiruvananthapuram. Achan went to SMV high school, Kurien Sir to Model school. Kurien Sir's dad was the librarian of Kerala University and established the Dept of Library Sciences.
At his place, great food and fabulous conversation that would have continued all night long had Amma not interrupted it with a phone call at 10:45.
History of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala culture, Padmanabhaswamy temple, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianty, quack new age Gurus, Malayalam cinema...inexhaustible topics that can burn off calories from the dinner even as it is being eaten!
After tomorrow, these notes will ne interrupted for 2-3 days since we are taking off for Munnar. I am sure the journey and the beautiful destination will provide plenty of material to note down when I get back.
Now for the musical trivia from Ravi Menon's book. An S.D.Burman music night in the 70s. Actress Nargis is the MC. Mohd Rafi and Lata Mangeskhar are in their respective chairs after finishing their solos. Nargis announces, "Next a romantic duet from Rafi and Lata" Rafi and Lata are stunned. Nargis continues, "We know that they have not sung together for six years. But they will unite again tonight. I hope they will do it for me."
Lata and Rafi had a fallout because of their opposing views on royalties. Lata believed the singer had a share but Rafi felt that once a singer is paid, the song belongs fully to the producer. They had not sung together for film or on stage for four years. But that night, they had tears in their eyes, when they finished singing "Dil Pukare" from the film, Jewel thief. Standing ovation from the packed audience. Rafi-Lata spring had arrived yet again in the film music world. After Rafi death, Lata continues to sing "Jo wada kiya" as a tribute to him in her stage shows.
Dil Pukare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-10yloS2i8
Jo wada kiya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou0B9T89L0g
For Malayalees, here is Ravi Menon's brilliant writing: http://paattezhuthu.blogspot.com/
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