October 29, 2011
October 29 marks the anniversary of the 999 year lease signed between the state of Travancore and the Madras Presidency for 8000 acres of land allowing the construction of the Mullaperiyar Dam, for Rs 40,000 per year. The king Vishakam Thirunal was apparently forced into signing the lease. "I sign this with my heart's blood," he is said to have remarked. There is no historical record of why he was against the project and how the British Raj managed to twist his arm.
The dam has been in news since the year 2000 because Kerala deems it unsafe and wants reconstruction, while Tamil Nadu argues that it is safe, sound and can support a water level over 140ft in the reservoir. Built with lime and surki, the dam was completed in 1895. Col. Pennycuick who spearheaded the project and finished it despite severe hardships, is fondly remembered by the villages and tribes in the dam area. This respect has been passed on through generations and his grandson was overwhelmed by the warm reception he received in 2003 while visiting from England.
The Hindu newspaper carried an article on the water stress that will be the bane of Asia very soon. 70% of the world's irrigated land is in Asia and with more throats to quench, the problem will soon be out of hand. Since no politician on this planet is ever concerned with anything more than his or her next term in office and their immediate family, strictly in that order, it is quite possible that the next world war is fought over water.
My cousin and niece came over yesterday night. She is getting ready to face the dreaded Engineering and Medical entrance exams next summer. She wanted some help with logarithms. Her coaching classes have over 100 students so there is no time for the coach to pay any individual attention. When tutoring centers have class sizes bigger than school, I think they should stop calling themselves tutorials.
Logarithms I remembered, but then she moved on to physical chemistry. Freezing point depressions of solutions with NaCl, aluminium sulphate, some perchlorate and urea. All I could sense was an unfathomable depression in my memory. And moving on, painfully I realized that I have become rather dense in matters of molar density. Next week, she plans to bring over some kinematics questions. Hopefully, the momentum will be conserved.
The weather was pleasant this morning with the sun muted by the gathering clouds. Our garden transformed into a boundless aviary. There is an unidentified plant that grows right next to the gate. It is already taller than the gate and displays the potential to become a small tree. The sweet smell of the white flowers that bloom aplenty are reminiscent of jasmine. These flowers lead to small red rounded fruits. There were three titmice feasting on these fruits. With their tufts, they reminded me of the American cardinals, not the cassocked molesting kind, but the winged bright red natural ones.
While the titmice got busy with the fruits, a long-billed sunbird couple checked out the flowers. Soon they moved on to the ixora flowers that were much higher. The male was radiant deep blue. With the invisibly fast wings that hover his tiny body, he reminded me of the humming birds of Texas. He was fearless and didn't mind briefly stopping by the vine that was hardly three feet from me. Two summers ago, a ruby throated humming bird had looked right into my eyes, up close and personal. A transformative moment. If I ever get to write an autobiography it should be called "A tiger and a hummingbird". My vision of life is substantially garnered from those two pairs of eyes.
The lady sunbird had grey wings, white breast and a beautiful yellow collar. While her spouse was a foolhardy rambler, she was systematic and purposeful checking out every single flower, branch by branch. Some warblers have become regular visitors to the tall hedges on either side of the short drive-way. I hope they nest inside that growth.
After lunch, while pacing up and down, I heard heavy wing flaps. A yellow streak passed before my eyes in an upward trajectory. The flapping stopped. I guessed that the owner of the wings must have landed on the jackfruit tree. Straining up to catch a glimpse, without being too conspicuous, I spotted a reasonably large Rufous treepie seated on the lowest branch. It was its lunch time. A large green caterpillar, easily as big as my middle finger, squirmed on the branch under the grip of the passerine claw. The tail, or may be it was the head, continued to wiggle even as the other end was teared up, peck by peck. The treepie took a leisurely 5 minutes to finish up the meal, switching its orientation for re-gripping a few times.
I was about to pull my neck back when there was more movement on the Labarnum tree. A beautiful Indian pitta revealed its presence. Bright green wings, yellow body with black streaks around its eyes and a white brow. It looked like flamboyant eye-masked bandit. The pitta migrates to the south and Sri Lanka from sub-Himalayas during winter. As with the black-clad Sabarimala devotees, the colorful Pitta sighting suggests that the cold season (Malayalam month of Vrishchikam) on its way.
Free promotional and propaganda material are shoved into our letterbox every now and then. Few days back, a fairly big booklet. "Prathyasha Margam" (Hope Way) read the title. It was basically the Malayalm translation of the Gospel of Mark (Markosinte suvishesham) published by the Bible Society of India. It had an ISBN number as well. The society seems fairly wealthy to drop such a neatly printed book freely at homes. But then again, can we put a price on a soul?!
Yesterday, Malabar Gold Jewelry promo materials arrived in elegant, appropriately golden envelopes. High quality paper, graphics and printing. Two booklets containing the latest designs in gold, platinum and diamond that are available. On both the booklets, Mohanlal in his obvious toupee insists that "beauty meets quality" in these designs. I presume these elaborate brochures are dropped only at select homes and housing colonies. Gold business lacks the marketing muscle of religious business yet, so targeted campaigns will stay on for a while.
Earlier this week, we had bought some Kozhiyala (Indian scad) fish. Achan made a curry. When Amma was told about this on the phone, she expressed doubts about Achan's expertise in fish cleaning. The fisherwoman had done the de-scaling and disentrailing. Achan had used plenty of salt to further remove scales and skin. But Amma was right. He hadn't pay attention to the bits of entrails that escape the quick yanking. So today when we got some Chala (sardines) Achan double checked the disemboweling before the salty round of cleaning. Usually when he is busy with cooking, I read the Mahabharatha loudly in the kitchen.
I caught myself being a little disappointed by the lack of stark instances of adultery, assault or lasciviousness in the episodes of the epic that were read today. Only a few minor incidents like Surya's union with Pridha (Kunthi) and his subsequent restoration of her virginity, Pandu's killing of a sage who was mating with his wife while both of them had assumed the form of deers and the blind Dhridhrashtra impregnating the 'vyshya'-caste woman who had come to take care of him while Gandhari, his wife, was busy being pregnant. Yuyutsu is the son born to that vyshya woman. Yuyutsu, that name sounds Korean or Japanese. I think such a connection must be explored. May be I am too much influenced by the Bodhidharma is a Tamilian theme that is impressively presented in the first 20 minutes of the new Tamil movie, 'Eazham Arivu'. If that movie had ended in 20 minutes, it would have been great.
Darkness and drizzle all afternoon. Peace.
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