January 9, 2012
I remember reading sometime back about the increasing usage of 'war-metaphors' in American life. Everything had to be declared a war to grab public attention. War on terror was understandable, but Foxnews started talking about a war on christmas, a war on "our values", war on the way of life etc.
Despite being a country that has never initiated a war after its independent existence in 1947, India is a land full of "armies" (sena). There is the Shiva Sena and the Ram Sena that spring to mind. Any local politician who dreams of being a satrap prefers calling his outfit a sena. And most of these outfits are pretty war-like in their political approach.
Kerala state government has a 'Karshaka Karma Sena' (Farming army). Three soldiers (or militants) of this outfit delivered the 25 sacks of 'terrace top vegetable garden' program for which we had signed up on Saturday.
The three mustachioed musketeers displayed a military like hierarchy. This thinnest, oldest gentleman was the leader. The youngest one in the twenties looked quite used to having his suggestions laughed off. But somehow, he belied the air of an impending coup. The third man was like the epic's Bhima, the middle one; bulky, silent, executing most of the tasks.
They carried the 25 "bio-soil" kits that come in plastic sacks in three trips to our terrace. Arranged in 5 by 5 formation...battalion, legion of health. Seeds and saplings of seven vegetables have been set up. Spinach, cauliflower, okra, chilies, tomatoes, long bean and bitter gourd. I am not sure about the bitter gourd, it might be long gourd.
This Sena departed as quickly as they came refusing even the drink of water that I offered. The major general did ask the infantry man if he wanted the refreshment. They had fifty odd houses to cover in our colony.
An organic vegetable cultivation guide booklet has been provided. Very informative about the common pests and their control. We have two neem trees, so preparing most of the organic pesticides should be easy. The booklet flap notes that 30,000 copies have been printed. Apparently, the government is subsidizing this project at the rate of Rs. 2000 per house. This should give a rough estimate of how much money has gone into various pockets. The corruption sena never sleeps!
The new issue of Madhyamam weekly was delivered with the newspaper this morning. I don't know how people still have the delusion that it is a communist leaning publication. The last two issues went after the culture minister of the previous communist ministry, this time they have gone after the very top, the ex-Chief Minister himself. Mr. Achudanandan displays a rather jingoistic anticorruption stance. So the revelations in the weekly about what has gone on in the background of the newly sanctioned Aranmula airport project might come as a shock for his fans.
Viju V Nair of Madhyamam is Kerala's Sainath, one of the very few journalist worth that job title in the state. He has presented the story of both the major political parties falling over themselves in writing off the heritage town of Aranmula to the ownership of the Reliance group. 500 acres of paddy fields and green belt have already been acquired. Communist party used to the one preventing big capitalist groups from blatantly exploiting the poor and weaker sections of the society. Now they lay out the red carpet!
Last night, I had an epiphany. I have figured out the root cause of the ever increasing alcohol consumption among Malayalees. No, it has nothing to do with corruption. In fact, corruption and black money helps with the consumption.
It is the damn mosquitoes!
It is impossible for anyone to go to bed with the senses intact. The drone of the vicious bloodsuckers are irritatingly frequent. I have a new "Hunter" electric zapper bat. But there is little a bat can do against the mosquitoes 'sena'.
Since I was home alone today, I started working on Dr. K.G. Paulose's Sanskrit guide. It is a 30 chapter book based on a hugely successful 30-week course that he had conducted. I am hopeful. The man impresses deeply in the introduction about his love for the language and his admiration for all the teachers he had had. He promises to attempt his best to convey his passion both for Sanskrit and for enjoyable learning in the book. The word Sanskrit was used to name the language for the first time in the Ramayana by Valmiki.
I had dosa for breakfast. Dr. Paulose includes a Sanskrit verse about dosa in the first chapter.
"Induvat varthulakara
kunduvat dhavalaprabha
Indravacha sahasraksha
dosakayah preenayanthu naha!"
[Round like the moon
White like Jasmine
A thousand eyed like Indra
may such dosas satisfy us]
In the introduction and in the first chapter, Dr. Paulose gives two examples of the Kadapayadi system of 'word numbers'. He mentions that once his teacher, K.P.Narayanapisharadi asked him, "How many days did Vashishtha say it will take for Dileepan to see the effect?"
I think this is from some episode in the Ramayana, I am not sure. Dr. Paulose apparently has the whole epic memorized but he couldn't recall any mention of a duration. Narayanpisharadi then recites the relevant verse
"Adooravarthineem sidhim
rajan viganayathmanah"
He goes on to explain that if we consider 'vigana' to mean 'to subtract' then kadapayadi equivalents of adooram (50) and athmanah (28) can be used to conclude that 22 days are suggested for effect (siddhi) to occur.
The second example is more common. The standard first verse that is used to initiate children into learning. "Hari sriganapataye namah". The Kadapayadi equivalent turns out to be 51 which is the number of letters in the Malayalam alphabet!
The first chapter in the book is a brief overview of language families of the world and how they are studied morphologically, analytically and geneologically. Morphologically languages are classified as isolating (like Chinese), agglutinating (English, Malayalam) and inflectional (Sanskrit).
After Panini laid down rigid rules for Sanskrit, it became the language of the elites. The common folk used a diluted, light version which became known as Prakrit. It is from this Prakrit that most of the north Indian languages (Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati,Kashmiri etc) evolved.
Prakrit was known for its closeness to nature. It was so powerful in describing the environment and landscape that even in the great works of Sanskrit literature, nature related songs were written in Prakrit. In Kalidasa's Shankuntala, the king, his court and the sages speak Sanskrit, while Shankuntala, her friends and the fishermen speak Prakrit. Buddhism and Jainism used Prakrit and Pali.
Interesting bit of trivia: Prakrit survives today only in the songs of the Kerala temple dance form called Koodiyattam.
Since the veggie garden got inaugurated today, I will finish with an attempted translation of another one of Ajith's poems from 'Leg before wicket'
The Prasadam* of Seeds
-----------------------------------
In the prayer's palm
seeds
to sprout in the soil
where the maggots of the hand's lines squirm
soaked in sweat
Could be the exploding okra
or the bullock that watches the running rope**
or in front of a camphor flame
adorned in turmeric and saffron
could be that stupid ash gourd***
could be the crocodile babies of the bitter gourd
the spiny spinach legs
scavenging around the coconut tree
could be the suicidal, hanging long gourds
Whatever they are, for the next trip
lunch with them
and in the goodbye gesture of
the folding palms
once again, will give
the blessings of new seeds.
*grace, material ritual offering, blessing
** common Malayalam riddle for pumpkin (kaala kidakum kayar oodum = bullock lies, rope runs around)
***referencing the famous Kerala legend about a physician who treated everyone with ash gourd
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