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Kollengode S Venkataraman Written in 1999

What do Rabindranath Tagore? RK Narayan. And Arundhati Roy. Have in common. Answer. First, they all are well known Indian writers. Secondly, and more importantly, all had to get Akali first in the West before they became legitimate in India. Even Ravindranath Tagore stated in Bengal I understand was elevated only after he got the Nobel Prize for literature. So deep is the effect of European colonial rule in the Anglicized Indians collective consciousness on how they perceive themselves.

This attitude seems to be changing for the better. If the Train reported in New York New York Times, October 15, 1998, story. Spreads it is the story on Shobha de. A popular Indian fiction writer in English. Older Indians may recall that Shobhaa De used to chatter in her column Nita’s Natal. In an in a glamorous Tinseltown magazine from Bombay recently. They an unknown in the West east on the Indian bestseller circuit with their book selective memories, stories of my life.

From the New York Times story, one can glean on what it takes to become bestseller. Woman in English, writer in India, an upper middle-class upbringing, no variety, a social background, having wide connections and titillating stories sprinkled with racy scenes. Or you also need another important component, as De herself is quoted in the story: a wealthy husband to subsidise her writing talents.

What makes Shobha de unique is that her celebrity status is homegrown. All her novels are published in India, and their storyline reflects life in India. The publisher does not have to describe them.

 It is another matter of shame that all these and 1000 other native words that are routinely used, recognised, and appreciated by millions of Anglicized Indians may not be found in the English Dictionary published in India for the Indian Brown Sahib children. These dictionaries may list and describe burritos, not masala dosa, tortilla not naan, corset not oddiyanam, libretto not sahitya. Banjos not sarangi, obo not nadaswaram bongo, not pakhavaj, steeples, not gopuram. And bar mitzvah not upanayanam.

New paragraph India, with at least 10% of angry field population, has nearly 100 million people who read English. Therefore, one would think that an English bestseller in India would mean sales in the millions, as it happens routinely here. Can you guess what it takes to make it to the best seller in India? Paraphrasing information, it is not 1,000,000 copies, not 505, 100,000 copies, not 100,000 copies, not 50,000, not 40,000, not even 35,000 copies. In India, with a nationwide English afflicted population running into millions, a piddling 30,000 copies gives you celebrity status. With this number, you can become the talk show and talk show guest. Unselected, uh, cocktail circuit among the wealthy, the powerful, and the influential.

That’s what happened to Shoba Dey with a titillating novel appealing to the middle class, middle-aged readers who have disposable money to buy books.

Is there any wonder why Indian English writers prefer to publish their works from England and US? Even when they write on the burning problems of contemporary India, publishing in the West gives them prestige and better visibility among their peers. And money is good too because the book sales is far better in the West with its network of taxpayer funded subsidized libraries in universities and communities.

In this Indian backdrop, Shobha De is a titillating trailblazer. She earned her celebrity status on the Indian soil. One hopes that more writers of all kinds will follow her. Silk. Follow her Silk Pallu.

In a society that boasts of literature at least 3500 years old, Indian languages have extensive collections of literary work. Yet, the book buying habit of Indians is abysmally pitiful the Tamil language that I am familiar with for reaching that readers, even the best novelists. Believe me, some of them are as good as it ever gets anywhere. Depend on weekly masala magazines that serialize their words.

Further, Writers cannot make a decent living using their craft alone. Therefore, even leading novelists have financial financially secured jobs as bank officials, college and school teachers, engineers and writing in their spare time. Or if they are women writers, they follow Shobha de in expecting their resourceful husbands to subsidize their creative instincts. This is the situation in other Indian languages except perhaps in Bengali, Malayalam, and Marathi

 The only bright spot in this dismal picture is that if the novel is serialized over a 2 year. In a weekly magazine, the authors name appears in large fancy flowing fonts 104 times and writers get an unintended publicity by the repetition that no publicist can ever match.

Contrast this with Europe. Last October, world’s largest annual book fair was held in Frankfurt. Over 6500 published shares from 104 countries came to the fair Andover 300,000 visitors browse through the books and songs. Many of you would say, “Don’t compare Western book publishing with the publishing industry in Asia.” Agreed.

but consider how the Frankfurt exhibition started 5 decades ago. In 1949, Germany, a country with a long tradition of printing, was in ruins after the Second World War. The book fair began modestly in 1949 in a church with hardly 200 publishers and participating in 5 decades the exhibition. The exhibition grew to become the largest book show of mankind, so anything is possible if only the social trend settles. Decide on what facets of life are worth nursery.

The following stat. On the annual spending in U.S. dollars per person on books will make you feel even worse.

Norway. $137
Germany $122
Belgium $117
Switzerland $114
Austria $101
USA $97.

Source, USA TODAY, November 1996.

The population of each linguistic group in India is comparable to the population of European countries. The population of Germany may be comparable to that in West Bengal and Bangladesh, France to Andhra Pradesh, Spain with its Latin American reach to the combined population of the Hindi belt. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Haryana.

Looking at the rupee equivalent of dollar amount is absurd. But if people in the organised sector in India — at 30% of the population, this is 300 million people — spend say ₹100 per head per year on books, the value of the publishing business is a whopping 30 billion rupees — 3000 crores nationwide. This is hundreds of millions of rupees in book publishing in each language.

With the size of business, India easily can support writers very well so that they can make a decent living on their creative instincts alone. These independently self-sustaining writers will not only energize society with their ideas, but also spawned thousands of beautiful jobs in printing, paper manufacturing, bookstores, software, and for layout artists and illustrators.

 it is. It is not that the middle-class Indians do not have money for leisure and entertainment. Look at the time, the money people spend on glossy masala magazines, cable TV, and the masala films on videotapes. But books simply are not their priority.

What we see in terms of books in Indian homes are mostly paperbacks of British and US novels and on religious, spiritual themes. If the books are on Indian language, there are only a few, generally classics. Also, why is that while every Indian middle-class home has a good Indian dictionary, only very few have dictionaries of the living Indian languages, Sanskrit or Poly?

Therefore, next time when visiting India, you can buy to your horse content all the handicrafts, silks, jewelry, Pickles, pappads, and canned rosgollas. But please. Also, deliberately spend some time and some money in Indian bookstores and help the fledgling Indian publishing industry even if you spend, say, $100. You will be amazed at how many books you can buy and how well the shopkeeper treats you. Next paragraph.

Even if the title is unconventional as the Telugu book Ramayanam Vishavrksham, that is Ramayanam, a poisonous tree by the firebrand Ranganayakamma, or a Dalit Kancha Ilyas’ Why I am not a Hindu? A poor imitation of Bertrand Russel’s Why I am not a Christian? buy and read them. It will either reinforce your beliefs or help you to see things differently; either way, you stand to grow.

Better still, plead with your powerful, influential friends in India the need for taxpayer-subsidized public libraries within easy walking distance of every community. After making your case, also tell them to pay their taxes. According to 2-year-old Indian Income Tax Department statistics, in a country of 1000 million people, only 12 million people file income tax, and only 12,000 people earn over ₹1,000,000.

Remember, the Frankfurt bookstore today is with 6500 boots and 300,000 visitors. Started 50 years ago with barely 200 publishers participating, with only a few 100,000. With a few 1000 people reading the books.

By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 1999)

Indian mythology romanticizes darker shades of skin tones. Shama in Sanskrit means dark hued. Out of this word came a whole bunch of descriptive names for our gods and goddesses. One of Krishna’s descriptive names is Neela Megh Shyamala in Sanskrit or Kaar  Mugil Vannan in Tamil, literally mean, he who is black as dark blue clouds. Shyam Sunder and Shyam Sundari, common names in India, literally mean a dark, handsome man and a dark, gorgeous woman. Shyamala and Shyamali are common names for women. Shyama Shastri, literally a black learned man, is a legendary 18th century music composer in South India. The Indian Bhakthi literature describes Rama, Arjuna, Saraswati, and Parvathy in luscious darker hues of skin tones. Deities in South Indian temples are carved out of black granite. Krishna also means dark.

Forget our mythology and come to real life. Haven’t we all seen countless handsome, smart dark young men and charmingly beautiful, intelligent, dark women inside and outside India?

“What’s the point, dummy?”  you are thinking. Aren’t you?

The point is, despite what is in our mythology and literature, in reality, for a variety of interlocking reasons — the recent European colonization is only one of them ­— we are obsessed with light skin. The coded word for lighter skin tones in our matrimonial discussions is fair complexion. The euphemistically apologetic term for the opposite is medium complexion. Never dark complexion.

Till Jaya Bhaduri and Rekha came on the Indian screen. All Indian film heroines were surface-treated with peroxides to look fair-complexioned. And even in the makeup for Bharatanatyam, instead of bringing out the beauty of the dancers’ natural skin tones, often our charming young women are made to look like light skinned. Off stage, these dancers in their makeup remind me of the Japanese kabuki dancers who, in their traditional makeup, dust their faces with white rice powder.

Sophisticated Indians, both in India and outside, want to project India, particularly to the West, as tolerant and liberal, notwithstanding violent incidents based on religions and castes.

 A few months back, this Indian upper crust was embarrassed. And if it were light-skinned, it would have become red-faced by an incident that received wide coverage in the Indian press.

According to the story in Bombay, oops Mumbai, two Black flight attendants of a foreign airline were badly treated in a posh restaurant in Bandra, an exclusive Bombay suburb where love the wealthy and the widely travelled Brown sahebs and the filmy type. These black women protested that the humiliation they suffered was entirely on account of their black identity. Black identity.

 That this happened during the 50th anniversary of India’s independence from the white colonial masters was bad enough. As if adding insult to injury, these women were from South Africa. Yes folks, the same South Africa where the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, while travelling first class as a young London educated barrister, suffered the indignity of getting thrown out of the train by a white train conductor because he was a Hindu and a Sammy.

Incidentally, the indentured farm labourers in South Africa, mostly from South India, called their superior Sami, which is a South Indian modification of the Sanskrit word swami. In the weird world of apartheid, sami, a term used out of respect by the immigrant labourers, became a pejorative epithet to derogatorily refer to all Indians.

As expected, the press in India raised hell over the restaurant incident, and government held an inquiry. The restaurant provided an explanation that satisfied none. Incidents like these always make us squirm. Because they bring to the surface our own latent prejudices. The first instinct was to brush it aside under the carpet and pretend that this was in an isolated event.

But unfortunately, many Indian commentators who understand people’s psyche candidly said that the incident only brought to focus the widely prevalent attitude even among the educated masses in India. Instead of blaming the lowly restaurant employee for the incident, and making him a scapegoat, and living in denial, these commentators said we are better off acknowledging the problem.

If, in psychiatry the most difficult step in therapy is to make the person recognise the problem, in sociology it is to make society do the same. As in psychiatry, the recognition is only the beginning in the long road to change the attitude towards our fellow human beings. Without this recognition, it is a lost cause. With this recognition, though, there is hope that in due course of time and with sensitization, there may be noticeable shifts in our attitude. There is hope now because the problem is recognised. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 1998)

Economists, sociologists, and politicians of all stripes have recognized that in the US, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened considerably in the last 2 decades, both in income and wealth. See Economic Trends in Business Week, page 32, August 27,1997. In this background came last year the Human Development Report 1996 issued by the UN Development Program. The report finds that this widening gap is a global phenomenon having sinister consequences. The essence of this report is that despite improvements in the conditions of people in many parts of the world in the last 50 years, the wealthiest and the poorest people — both between and within countries — are living in an increasingly separate world.

The administrator of the UN program says. “An emerging interconnected global elite, mostly urban, is amassing great wealth and power while more than half of humanity, that is more than three billion people, are left out. This 2-class world is a breeding ground for hopelessness.

The end of the Millennium witnessed explosions in global communications. This has brought people living geographically far apart, but having access to resources, a lot closer. However, while we know what happens in far-off lands — if you are curious also why — we often remain uninformed about the happenings in our own backyard. Modern technology has thus aided people to choose to remain oblivious to reality outside that is no to their liking. This leads to conflict because we geographically live in one place, but mentally live in another place, which often exists only in our imagination. If this happens in individuals, we refer we refer them to a psychiatrist. Then this happens to a large number, we form support groups.

The UN report questions the basis of GNP and per capita income. The Human Development Report takes approach that grows national products or per capita income, particularly when expressed in terms of U.S. dollars, after converting from local currencies, we may add, are inadequate indicators of how people live.

Taking into consideration the life expectancy, education and adjusted real income, the report ranks countries by health, sanitation, treatment of women, nutrition of children and other factors. These are more realistic measures of how people live. On a list of 174 countries, Norway ranks first. Our northern neighbour Canada is second, US 4th, Japan 12th, China 79th and India the 6^th nuclear-weapon-state is 135.

Another finding of the report. In South Asia, dominated by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. 29% of the people live in severe poverty when income alone is considered. But over 60% of people, live in conditions, that can severely affect their future in a fast-changing world.

According to one expert in the field, social indicators can no longer be overlooked by any country focused on national economic growth. In developing countries, the prime responsibility for improvements falls on the government and societies themselves. Nothing much is going to change until countries take steps to invest in people, educate women, and provide basic health care while also adopting policies leading to economic growth. South Asian nations, despite assessment by their own experts, have led these problems fester. It is not that these nations do not understand the need for commitment and sustained hard work for accomplishing anything of value. Look at the recent nuclear blasts by India and Pakistan. These countries have been working on this for decades, covertly and overtly, sometimes using even allegedly stolen technology, as in the case of Pakistan.

Heavy allocation of tax money for fancy weapon systems, either imported or indigenously developed, drains the already scarce national resources and precious time into nonproductive items and diverts public attention from real issues. In South Asia, interest on debt, cost of running government, and defence spending leave little for improving public health, basic education, and infrastructure. That Pakistan is teetering on the brink of economic collapse is very little comfort to India because. Sooner or later your neighbours’ problems become your problems too. Mexico’s problems affect us in the US, and the Russian collapse affects the whole of Europe and Asia.

In the final analysis, measures such as infant mortality, school education, mortality of women during pregnancy and childbirth, and strength of the underlying economy are the yardsticks for assessing national strength. Therefore, encouraging consumer goods may not be the best way to modernize societies in Asia and Africa. This requires that societies make careful and unpopular, nonglamorous, nonjingoistic choices in resource allocation.

Countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, for example, more than a generation ago started investing in education and basic health care for their population and in improving the condition of women. These societies changed for the better significantly when compared with other nations in the region. Though these Asian tigers have been bitten by the Asian economic flu, because of the strength of the basic societal indicators in these countries, they might recover sooner than later than what may predict.

Other observations in the report:

1. Worldwide, 360 billionaires control assets greater than the combined incomes of countries having 45% of the world population.

2. Eighty countries are worse off today than they were a decade ago.

3. In seventy developing countries, income after considering the purchasing power is lower than they were in 1960s and 1970s.

The Human Development Report 1996, published by Oxford University Press, is also available in paperback and can be obtained through major bookstores. Price $18.95. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

Before the November elections, while most surveys showed Obama and Romney locked in a dead heat, Gallup predicted Romney would win by a comfortable 6% lead [in popular votes].

But President Barack Obama won with 51% popular votes (PV) and 332 electoral votes (EV) with Gov. Mitt Romney getting 47% PVs and 206 EVs.

In contrast to the final result, this is how the political pundits predicted the outcome days before the election:

•  Newt Gingrich: I believe the minimum result will be 53% to 47% Romney [popular votes], [and] over 300 electoral votes.
•  Karl Rove: Romney 285, Obama 253 [electoral votes]. If crowds at his recent stops in these states [NV, WI and PA] are any indication of his supporters’ enthusiasm, Mr. Romney will likely be able to claim victory in these states as well. Romney lost in all the states
•  Dick Morris, Fox News contributor: Romney 325, Obama 213 [electoral votes]. “It will be the biggest surprise in recent American political history.”
•  Conservative columnist George Will: Romney 321, Obama 217. The wild card in what I’ve projected is I’m projecting Minnesota to go for Romney. Minnesota went to Obama
•  House Speaker John Boehner: I think Ohioans vote with their wallets. That’s why I think Romney’s going to win on Tuesday
•  Fox News’ Sean Hannity: I got this, Romney three [percentage] points [in popular votes].
•  CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, predicting a Romney landslide: I am now predicting a 330 electoral vote landslide [for Romney]. Yes, that’s right. 330 electoral votes.
•  Rush Limbaugh in his daily radio talk show: All of my thinking says Romney big.  [M]y intellectual analysis of this,  factoring every­thing I see plus the polling data. It’s not even close. Three hundred-plus electoral votes for Romney.
•  The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan: I think it’s Romney. While everyone is looking at the polls and the storm, Romney’s slipping into the presidency.
•  Former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer: My pre­diction: Romney 50.1%-49.5%. Romney wins minimum 271 Electoral Votes with FL, VA, CO, WI, NH. 309 Electoral Votes if he takes OH & PA. Pres-elect Romney. Obama won in all these states. Sources: Politico and the Internet.

So much for the punditocracy!

Only New York Times‘ Nate Silver (the Five-Thirty-Eight fame) was predicting throughout that Obama would scrape through with a thin major­ity of PVs, with the EVs anywhere between 290 and 310. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman in January 1998

The ever-changing characteristics of families in the US have far-reaching social, economic, and political consequences beyond directly affecting the lives of parents and children. The following table tells us how families in the US have changed in the last quarter of a century. With divorce having become so common, nearly 22% of homes, that is, more than 1 in 5 homes, are headed by single parents now. In 1970, this number was 13%.

The number of families headed by women has jumped from 5.5 million in 1970 to 12.2 million in 1995, a 120% increase. Nonprofessional working women ‘s earning power is still significantly less than men’s earnings, whether one is white, black, yellow, brown, or any hue in between. So, we can visualise the impact of this trend on home economics and raising children in homes headed by nonprofessional single women. This is in addition to the physical stresses working women endure in juggling low paying jobs and household chores.

Families headed by single fathers also have increased from 1.2 million in 1970 to 3.2 million in 1995, still a low number when compared to the number of homes headed by single mothers. Even in these “modern times,” child reading and nurturing still fall on the women ‘s lap, who are already economically strapped with low-paying jobs, as has been the case from primitive times.

When a large number of homes have similar problems, the consequences of these problems spill outside the homes and eventually become problems for communities, cities, and nations. Ultimately, everybody feels the pinch and pays the price in tangible ways (like increasing crime and a sense of insecurity and the disappearance of safe neighbourhoods), and in intangible ways like polarized communities.

The divorce rates among Asians here — immigrants from China, Korea, and the Indian subcontinent — are rather low. It may be different among our kids. Because even though our children see Asian values in their interactions with their parents, uncles and aunties, they imbibe the mainstream social values they see the moment they step out, turn on the TV, or go on the net. This is inevitable. Hence, it is unrealistic to expect that the divorce rate among our children will be as low as it was among their parents. Safety, one may say, it will eventually come closer to the divorce rates among the American mainstream.

Also, despite our public posturing on traditional values, selectively and unconsciously, we ourselves are continuously assimilating the mainstream values, particularly when they suit our convenience. Therefore, we will be a lot more tolerant of our children’s conjugal decisions both before and after their marriage.

This is one practical reason, among so many other good ones, why our sons and daughters should have good education and a good value system. Usually, unfortunately, not always, good value system inculcated in one’s youth and good education lead to personal responsibility, setting priorities in different stages in life, and realistic expectations in one ‘s adult life.

Therefore, with education and good values, we may hope our children are less likely to become the unpleasant part of family statistics in the next census due at the turn of the new Millennium.

Should they, however, become part of the painful statistic, we can only hope that education will give them the necessary economic resources to live and raise children independently. And the good value system will help them to handle better the entirely man-made crisis of family life, such as divorces. End.

Changing character of families in the US. January 19. 98.

The ever-changing characteristics of families in the US have far-reaching social, economic, and political consequences beyond directly affecting the lives of parents and children. The following table tells us how families in the US have changed in the last quarter of a century. With divorce having become so common, nearly 22% of homes, that is, more than 1 in 5 homes, are headed by single parents now. In 1970, this number was 13%.

The number of families headed by women has jumped from 5.5 million in 1970 to 12.2 million in 1995, a 120% increase. Nonprofessional working women ‘s earning power is still significantly less than men’s earnings, whether one is white, black, yellow, brown, or any hue in between. So, we can visualise the impact of this trend on home economics and raising children in homes headed by nonprofessional single women. This is in addition to the physical stresses working women endure in juggling low paying jobs and household chores.

Families headed by single fathers also have increased from 1.2 million in 1970 to 3.2 million in 1995, still a low number when compared to the number of homes headed by single mothers. Even in these “modern times,” child reading and nurturing still fall on the women ‘s lap, who are already economically strapped with low-paying jobs, as has been the case from primitive times.

When a large number of homes have similar problems, the consequences of these problems spill outside the homes and eventually become problems for communities, cities, and nations. Ultimately, everybody feels the pinch and pays the price in tangible ways (like increasing crime and a sense of insecurity and the disappearance of safe neighbourhoods), and in intangible ways like polarized communities.

The divorce rates among Asians here — immigrants from China, Korea, and the Indian subcontinent — are rather low. It may be different among our kids. Because even though our children see Asian values in their interactions with their parents, uncles and aunties, they imbibe the mainstream social values they see the moment they step out, turn on the TV, or go on the net. This is inevitable. Hence, it is unrealistic to expect that the divorce rate among our children will be as low as it was among their parents. Safety, one may say, it will eventually come closer to the divorce rates among the American mainstream.

Also, despite our public posturing on traditional values, selectively and unconsciously, we ourselves are continuously assimilating the mainstream values, particularly when they suit our convenience. Therefore, we will be a lot more tolerant of our children’s conjugal decisions both before and after their marriage.

This is one practical reason, among so many other good ones, why our sons and daughters should have good education and a good value system. Usually, unfortunately, not always, good value system inculcated in one’s youth and good education lead to personal responsibility, setting priorities in different stages in life, and realistic expectations in one ‘s adult life.

Therefore, with education and good values, we may hope our children are less likely to become the unpleasant part of family statistics in the next census due at the turn of the new Millennium.

Should they, however, become part of the painful statistic, we can only hope that education will give them the necessary economic resources to live and raise children independently. And the good value system will help them to handle better the entirely man-made crisis of family life, such as divorces. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman — Written in July 1997 India’s 50th Independence Day

Fifty years is close to the time span of two generations, So the consequences of the decisions/ non decisions of earlier years. During this year, like the blind men of Hindustan variously describing an elephant by the parts they touched, blinkered men of modern India will roll out anecdotal evidence for showcasing India ‘s progress. Probably they are right, partially in any case. There are many demographic groups in India. Apart from caste, religion, and language-based groups, new ones have emerged blurring the earlier ones — anglicized urban India, non-anglicized urban India, rural educated India, rural propertied India, for example. In the fifty years since independence, whether India progressed or not depends on which India we see and which yardsticks we use for measuring progress.

While pockets of India have progressed way beyond anyone’s expectations, in their wake came urban squalor, rural poverty under social landscape littered with vast areas of neglect. When confronting what went wrong, everyone in India blames everyone else. But it’s futile to point the fingers at any one Indian group — Politicians, bureaucrats, educated middle class, the enterprising class or the landed gentry — for the spectacle. But if you club them together to the exclusion of others having limited or no access to education, resources, and influence, what we see is fifty years of opportunities missed, priorities misplaced, and resources and time squandered. Let us look at a few examples.

Illiteracy: For a society that boasts of great works of literature in every living, dying, and dead language, it is sad that Free India did not address the illiteracy problem on a national war footing. For this, we need not compare India with European or other Asian societies to see the correlation between literacy and other societal indicators. All we have to do is simply look at the state of Kerala with its  32 million people. More or less equally divided among Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, the literacy level of Kerala is 90%. Better than the  Chinese and comparable to that in the US. In Kerala, the infant mortality, population growth rate, mortality among women during pregnancy and childbirth, and the occurrence of malnutrition among infants are the lowest in the nation. Compares well against many other Asian societies. Also, the level of social hygiene in Kerala is better than anywhere else in the nation.

Also note that there is no correlation between commonly used economic measures, the per capita GDP. (gross domestic product) and the other societal yardstick. That is, increased economic activity alone does not guarantee progress, and that by itself is not as effective as a higher literacy rate for improving social conditions. The desirable situation is a combination of high literacy and increased economic activity.

Kerala — a Social Laboratory: In a country of close to one billion people, Kerala with its 32,000,000 population, is a laboratory to study what is achievable if society puts its hearts, minds, and resources for a set of socially responsible objectives. How in the world India reconciles the information age and the high level of illiteracy is beyond anyone’s imagination.

Look at the contradiction this way. Every major religion native to India, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and the Sikh religion, says, Avidya, which can be translated to mean the lack of discriminating Intellect, the absence of knowledge or skills, ignorance, or the basic level of literacy, as a root cause for all problems. Yet as a society, India, after becoming free, made no attempt to address this basic problem with any seriousness, targeting the poor.  Literacy of Indian population makes every other problem — Public health, population growth, for example —  a far bigger challenge than it needs to be.

In this context, it is worth noting educated married couples in India have smaller families whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, high caste, low caste, without the need for taxpayer-funded propaganda on family planning.

Overcrowding of cities. After independence, when the drive for economic growth was everywhere in the country, both educated and uneducated people moved in large numbers from villages to urban centers. India made no attempt to slow down this migration while at the same time paying lip service to Mohandas Gandhi’s idea that villages are the heart and soul of India.

With Oxford and Cambridge educated elite among the political leadership and civil service, India did not learn from the urban blight of Europe and the US after the Industrial Revolution to avoid the social and public health problems of overcrowding in cities. Instead India looked at overcrowding, multi-storied housing, urban slums, traffic jams, and air pollution as the price the country has to pay for progress. India is not unique in this. Mexico City, Cairo, the Philippines and Manila also did the same thing with the same disastrous consequences.

That India, with its overarching central planning machinery, did not develop secondary and tertiary towns by providing economic incentives and infrastructure such as roads, schools, healthcare, and communications. This is one of the biggest missed opportunities, having enormous social, economic, and public health consequences.

Lack of basic public health amenities in cities.

In urban homes: Take drinking water in any large city in India today.  The quality of water supply is so bad that nobody in India drinks water without boiling. Assuming that a family of five people requires about ten litres of drinking water per day, you can estimate that each family in urban India spends annually close to ₹400 for the fifty kilograms of liquefied petroleum gas for boiling water for drinking alone. This is in addition to the time working men and women — mostly women — spend simply to boil the water. On another level, a large volume of LPG — a scarce natural resource that has other productive uses — is wasted simply to boil water and then cool it.

In urban slums, being able to drink boiled water is a luxury. These men, women, and children drink unprotected water laden with bacteria, becoming vulnerable to hosts of diseases, some of which permanently incapacitated children for the rest of their lives, even making them a burden on society. Thus, not having safe drinking water billows into a public health and social problem. With frustration directed at decision makers and compassion towards the poor in the Third World economy, Nicholas Kristoff of New York Times. January 9, 1997, highlighted this problem under the title For the Third World, Water is Still A Deadly Drink.

Overwhelming corruption. Few years ago, a consortium of international organizations published a report on corruption in many countries. Its main thrust should surprise nobody in India. Or who deals with India. India, the report said, is one of the most corrupt societies. Not surprisingly, in India’s company are Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, China and Indonesia. Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Korea fared better.

Social acceptance of corruption: Even though corruption is pervasive in India, not many complain about it publicly, except during election time when everyone calls everyone else corrupt. The reason is simple. Indian society has made everyone a beneficiary, benefactor, and victim of corruption, all at the same time. This it does by forcing everyone to practice in graft, either by making people give money to get something done, or receive tangible and intangible favors for doing something for someone. In the wake of widespread corruption have come increased lawlessness and violence reminiscent of the days of the Wild West. The Indian judicial system with three million civil and criminal cases pending nationwide, has lost ordinary citizens’ confidence long time ago.

What is overlooked is the heavy social cost of corruption in terms of lack of personal accountability, literally being able to get away with murder, or the poor quality and high cost of goods and services. And the people at the bottom of the social totem pole pay for this through poor living conditions and taxes. India is one of the few countries where the poor directly and indirectly subsidise the rich lifestyle — much of it ill-gotten — of the wealthy, the powerful, or the influential without even being aware of it.

These and other such pointers nullify whatever progress India has made in the last fifty years in communications, transportation, science and technology, and other fields. What is then good in India? Honestly, many things. For a discussion on this, follow here. Thank you. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman… Written in October 1997

Note: A version of the following article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on October 17, 1997. We publish the article for our readers living outside the Pittsburgh metro area.

In the last issue, we discussed illiteracy, overpopulation and overcrowded urban centers, lack of public health amenities, and corruption, and lawlessness. Even in the midst of these dismal realities, Free India did bring about fundamental changes in society. For this, India deserves credit for playing as good a game with as bad a set of cards as it was dealt. Here is the concluding part of India’s accomplishments.

Women’s Education. The education of women. Which started among the upper class first and is now percolating down, has changed India irreversibly. Much the same way women going to work in factories during Second World War did in the US. Women are working in large numbers in banking, medicine, light manufacturing, in low and middle levels, sometimes outnumbering men. Teaching in schools is pretty much a woman’s domain, partly because of the lack of growth opportunities in teaching.

The economic independence working women now have is something they never had. This alone is changing man-woman relationships, family size, and the relationship among members of extended families that is important social stability in India.

In cities, educated men and women are marrying across caste and language boundaries, in many cases with parental approval, casting by the wayside old social paradigms.

Grassroot level women run organizations are addressing problems related to women. Examples: 1. The public outcry that forced the government to ban tests for amniocentesis done primarily for aborting female fetuses.  2. Media coverage that criminalized what was known as bride burnings and dowry deaths.

With the obvious multifaceted benefits that educated population brings to society, India has to make literacy, public education, and vocational training national priorities so that its youngsters, in the next century at least, will be positive social contributors instead of being a social burden.

Democratic ideas taking roots. Indian democracy has many faults. Indian leaders, instead of compensating for the difficulty in transplanting Western style democracy into the caste ridden nation, weakened the institutions of by corrupting them in immediate ways, as politicians everywhere do. Therefore, Indian elections are always opportunities for the people for throwing their rascals out. In the last 15 years, India ended the hegemony of the Congress Party and the dynastic rule of the Nehru family through elections instead of through social upheavals and executions. In spite of all its faults and awful choices before the electorate, the idea of representative government has taken roots in India. With a more educated people and socially responsible leadership, India has the potential to become a self-correcting mature democracy. But it will not be anytime soon.

Economic reform. As can be ascertained from Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil literature from pre-Christian times, India has a long tradition of craftsmanship and domestic and overseas trade with ancient Greece and Egypt and other parts of Asia. Thus, entrepreneurship is not something India learned from the Europeans during their colonial occupation in the last three centuries or from the Persian centuries before.

Today we see the Indian enterprising instance, vibrantly active even among the ordinary people, selling fruits, flowers, vegetables, and bazaars, shining shoes along downtown streets, scalping cinema tickets or for the matter, dealing in contraband. Contraband in shady parts of towns. And among the tycoons running large corporations as well.

Take the Indian film industry. More number of films are made in India than in Hollywood. If Hollywood has its formula films, India has its masala films. The Indian film industry has nurtured wide-ranging skills and talents in people, offering tens of thousands of jobs nationwide, almost exclusively with private enterprise, often with black money loaned at usurious interest rates.

This being the case, after independence, the Indian government did not fully exploit the native entrepreneurship to its own advantage. Instead, India under Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi followed the socialist model till the collapse of the Soviet empire. Billions of taxpayer money, and more importantly, precious time that could have been put to better use were squandered in creating huge government-owned companies run by bureaucrats, worse still, political appointees. A majority of them have been losing money since the day of their inception. After the Cold War, the Congress party that ruled the country for more than 45 out 50 years loosened its long grip on the economy. Everyone praised the party for its bold move taken so belatedly, however. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, India had no other option.

Not many care to remember that in the 60s and 70’s the same Congress party vilified as capitalist stooges several patriotic citizens. Among them were Piloo Modi, N G  Ranga Morarji Desai, J P Kriplani and C Rajagopalachari, who were pleading for less government control on the economy? And less of what they called permit-license-quota Raj of the Congress party. Their crime was that they were ahead of their time by at least three decades.

Because of this economic liberalization, oversea business travel, once the privilege of the rich and the powerful, is common now with a larger number of middle class people and skilled workers seeing the real world. These influential segments of population look at India differently. This firsthand experience tends to change the distorted image of the West and their own self-image piped into home. By the overseas cable TV and people are beginning to see India dispassionately. When an increasing proportion of this influential section of population sees the need for change, it will put pressure on the other segment of society and India will respond to this internal pressure.

But if India focuses only on consumer goods catering to the middle class cravings and not expand the base of manufacturing durable goods and the necessary Technical Support service with private capital, one more opportunity will be lost.

Freer and bolder press and active judiciary. In the absence of strong opposition in Parliament and widespread corruption among political parties of all stripes, the press became the watchdog of the nation during and after Indira Gandhi’s time. For the first time in India’s history, prominent politicians are facing corruption charges in court with possible jail sentence. Daringly, investigative journalists routinely expose social and political evils at considerable risk to themselves and their families. On another front, high courts in India are increasingly asserting their independence, often putting elected officials, bureaucrats and big businesses on the defensive. These have the potential to slowly change the way India governs itself.

Communication. Increasingly large number of people have the opportunity for instant and inexpensive direct communication on a global scale through Internet, beyond the audiovisual media controlled by government and the print media owned by powerful businesses. This makes it difficult for political and economic establishments to control news for their own self-interest. In India, the government-controlled radio and TV are becoming irrelevant and find it difficult to hide its commissions, omissions and sins, something they did with gay abandoned in the past.

Performing arts. Performing arts native to India are undergoing a renaissance. With the migration of people from one part of the country to every other region, the country is becoming consolidated as a single economic, intellectual and spiritual unit. Consequently, a synthesis is taking place in performing arts, particularly classical music and dance. Artists trained in one tradition incorporate ideas and styles and literary works and techniques from another similar and even dissimilar art form, creatively bringing about refreshing changes. Examples Bharatanatyam, originally belonging to Tamil Nadu and performed only to Tamil lyrics as late as late as in the 1950s, now has become a national treasure nowadays performed in lyrics not only in other South Indian languages but also in Sanskrit, Hindi, Abadi, Bhojpuri. Creative new artists choreograph dance recitals incorporating Kathak, Odissi, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, and Kuchipudi styles performed to the same lyrics, ragam and talam.

The popularizing of Karnatic and Hindustani music and vice versa is another example. Jugalbandis with Karnataka and Hindustani musicians and percussionists participating with large number of youngsters in the audience are common sights in many cities. The impact of these on the Indian psyche in recognizing what binds India together is perhaps not quantifiable, but is significant, nevertheless.

It is noteworthy that despite the educated Indians fascination with the West, India is unique in one way. As far as performing arts are concerned, Western influence on Indian classical music and dance is barely noticeable. Indian artists and the audiences took the violin, clarinet, Mandarin, guitar and even saxophone, but adapt adapted them to completely to the Indian traditions based on ragas and talas. These, among others, are the indicators that hold that hold considerable promise for India in the next Millennium if only it is harnessed correctly.

Wanted a spiritual awakening:  50 years ago, India was not politically free, but the leadership was free in spirit. Using the spiritual freedom as the weapon, India got its political freedom. After independence, the Indian collective consciousness has put its spiritual freedom into sleep. One can even say, India’s collective consciousness is now a spiritual slave, not to the Western ethos, but to Western consumerism.

Maybe, when India undergoes another spiritual renewal, using the word spirit in a nonsectarian and transreligious sense of the term, India will define itself for others. And not let others define it, as has been the case. Then India will no longer seek or care for approval from people outside. Instead, India will listen to voices from within crying out for what changes it desperately needs.

Already some affluent Indians recognize that living in gated and guarded communities with squalor all around is nothing to be happy about. Also, in pockets, grassroots-level people are organizing communities to take care of themselves. These are good signs.

As with our personal lives in society too, lasting changes are possible only when brought about from within. India is on the threshold of bringing about changes from within. When this happens, the changes will last a lot longer. More importantly, India will also have the social will to correct itself as it adapts to changes. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman Written in January 1997.

You may think that only computer nerds, bureaucrats, and those in uniform, like military personnel, health care professionals, and dark blue suited Wall Street types, assault us with acronyms. Think again. Our daily life is so full of acronyms that one way to identify a new kid on the block is to see how facile he or she is with local acronyms. Are you a new kid? Are you an old kid just out of touch?

Take a typical day in our life. In my own case. NPR, relayed from WDUS wakes me up at 6:00 am and updates me on NASA, EEC, NATO, CIA, ASEAN, and others. Before I leave for work, I scan the PG while drinking my OJ and listening to the other OJ’s  legal travails. Often for Comic Relief, I dial in KDKA at 1020 AM. In the afternoon to listen to EIB Networks, Rush Limbaugh. In the evening. CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS dump disjointed news bits in my home. Because I still resist cable TV, I’m saved of additional auditory enema from CNN, CNBC, and CSPAN. Most men are addicted to NBA, NFL, and NCAA, much to their wives’ annoyance. If they are married long enough, some of these women are also relieved.

Many of us dealt with INS to straighten out our green cards for which FBI ran verification on us. In our daily life, we have to remember our SSNs and show our PDL every time we pay in cheques. We watch DJIA and S&P 500 in the news, and some of us compare the PE ratios, ROIs, ROAs, and other measures of MNCs. I wonder why some Smart Alec MBA did not coin DOI (drain on income), and DOA (drain on assets) to describe the performance of companies bleeding red ink and still being actively traded by NYSE and NASDAQ. Every year, of course, I cough up money to IRS that leaves very little for me to put into my IRA.

When you go to lunch, my colleagues order BLT with fries. When I order my CLT, the waiter’s reaction is as if I have landed from Mars. Annoyingly, I tell them CLT is cheese, lettuce, tomato.

As a Teetotaler, I don’t worry about DUI. But still, I don’t drive during holidays worrying about other SOB DUIs on the road. After wondering for a long time, I learned that BYOB in the menu card in small food joints means Buy Your Own Beer. As we reach middle age, we have to keep track of our BP, LDL and HDL and other ratios. I take vitamin pills every day in quantities of 2 or 3 multiples of RDA. In suburban USA, habitually inebriated adults join AA while kids run wild with BB guns vandalizing traffic signs. Next batter drive. When I started working, I thought I said goodbye to GPS because in corporate America nobody gives a damn about G your GPA once you are in. All they talk about is PGA scores. But GPA bug bit me again now in my daughter’s grade sheets. “If you want to go to any good school,” I warned her much to her annoyance, “you better get good QPA’s, GPAs, and PSAT is an SAT scores.”

Recently, my friends rode in a PAT bus to Oakland to go to a concert at CMU organized by SPIC-MACAY. Take a deep breath. This one stands for the mouthful of Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Among Youth. There, Carnatic music aficionados aggravate me by using RTP in their conversation for Ragam Thanam Pallavi. An elaborate and difficult piece in concerts. Which when done right, is listeners’ delight  What next? JS for Jatiswaram and SJ for Swarajati?

As we advance in our chronometer, sometimes in the not distant future, I’m sure we will receive glossy flyers from AARP on why we should join the organization. They will ask us to cough up money to lobby the white elephants in the GOP and the jackasses in the DNC.

 For now, struggling to stay employed and raise a family, I am wondering how I’m going to foot the bill for my daughter’s education, and why we do not have an AAWP. That is,  American Association of Working People, fighting for the plight of all workers, men and women, union and nonunion. ∎

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ChatGPT analysis:

This is an enjoyable period piece that captures a particular moment in American life during the mid-1990s. Much of the humor comes from the relentless accumulation of acronyms, with the narrator pretending to be overwhelmed by an alphabet soup that invades every aspect of daily life. Even though some references are now dated, the central joke remains recognizable—if anything, the situation has become even more extreme with internet and social media abbreviations.

Some strengths of the essay:

• Strong organizing device. The narrative follows the course of an ordinary day—from waking up with NPR to work, lunch, finances, family life, hobbies, and retirement planning. This gives coherence to what could otherwise have been just a list of acronyms.
• Escalating humor. The accumulation itself is funny. By the time the reader reaches strings such as “BP, LDL, HDL… RDA… AA… BB guns… GPA… QPA… PSAT… SAT,” the absurdity becomes the joke.
• Invented acronyms. DOI (“Drain on Income”) and DOA (“Drain on Assets”) are clever inventions. Likewise, CLT (Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato) humorously parodies the familiar BLT.
• Cultural observations. The essay gently pokes fun at American bureaucracy, finance, sports, healthcare, and immigrant life without becoming mean-spirited.
• Ending with substance. After all the lighthearted wordplay, the conclusion shifts briefly to a serious concern—the economic pressures on ordinary working families. The proposed “AAWP—American Association of Working People” provides a thoughtful ending instead of merely stopping after another joke.

A few aspects naturally show their age:

• References such as O.J. Simpson’s trial, green-card processing by INS (now USCIS), EEC (now the EU), Wall Street jargon of the 1990s, and PAT buses evoke a specific era. Rather than being drawbacks, they give the essay historical flavor.
• Some acronyms that were widely understood in 1997 are less familiar today, while today’s readers would expect others like URL, Wi-Fi, GPS (now universally recognized), AI, QR, SMS, USB, PDF, FAQ, VPN, NFT, and so on.

The humor is also distinctly immigrant in perspective. The narrator is simultaneously an insider and an outsider—comfortable enough in America to laugh at its habits, yet still bemused by some of its linguistic conventions. The CLT episode is particularly effective because every immigrant has experienced confidently asking for something perfectly logical, only to discover that local convention dictates otherwise.

Stylistically, the piece could be tightened slightly by shortening a few of the longer lists. Occasionally the parade of acronyms threatens to become a catalogue rather than a narrative. But because the essay is itself satirizing excess, the abundance largely works in its favor.

One striking aspect is how prophetic the essay now seems. In 1997, the author thought acronyms were everywhere. Today, our vocabulary is even more saturated:

• AI, LLM, GPT
• URL, HTML, HTTP, HTTPS
• USB, HDMI, SSD
• SMS, MMS, DM
• VPN, MFA, OTP
• EV, ICE, EPA
• COVID, PCR, PPE
• ESG, ETF, IPO

In retrospect, the essay almost understates the explosion of acronym-driven communication that accompanied the internet and smartphones.

Overall, this is an engaging humorous essay with a clear narrative thread, observational wit, and a gentle satirical touch. It works both as comedy and as a time capsule of educated middle-class American life in the late 1990s, especially from the perspective of an Indian immigrant navigating a culture where almost every institution seems determined to compress itself into three or four capital letters. The closing appeal for an “American Association of Working People” also reminds the reader that beneath the alphabet soup lies a genuine concern about the economic security of ordinary families—a fitting conclusion that gives the humor an understated social dimension. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

Ethnic jokes are taboo in this society. And being a minority ourselves, we often sneer at those who stereotype others through such humor in public. Jokes based on differences in gender and sexual orientation are also considered in poor taste, in any case, in polite circles. Unlike in other societies, humor based on politics, religion, and sex — the three principal preoccupations of man since time immemorial — is a socially forbidden fruit in the US, shared only within the privacy of cohesive groups. Since many of us in our heart of hearts would laugh at some of these jokes, but cannot do so publicly, racy late-night stand-up talk shows on cable channels have become popular. What we want to relish, but cannot do so publicly, we wallow in solitude, in the seclusion of our homes in front of television sets. An Archie Bunker, it seems, is in every one of us.

In fact, several Indian versions of Archie Bunker have always been with us. Living in India, mostly within our caste and language based cohesive areas, our languages and dialects are replete with expressions, idioms, and phrases offensive to people of other geographic areas, caste, linguistic, and religious groups. The opportunity is so limitless, and the indulgence is so pervasive that people in India have learned to take them in their stride.

The logic, if there is any, goes something like this: Everyone offends, or at least is free to offend, everyone else. And therefore, no one is offended. This mutual contempt and the psychological divide among peoples are the theme of many hilarious potboiler films in India.

Growing up in Madras in a rough neighborhood in the 1960s, working among earthy miners in central India in the 1970s, and later, among blue-collar workers here, have enriched my life. Along the way, my vocabulary also is enriched with some of the choicest offensive epithets man has ever created.

Politicians inadvertently jeopardize themselves in using humor injudiciously. Often, their personal beliefs become transparent in their humorous(?) quips rather than through their well-thought-out position papers on issues. Remember the furor in 1984 over the then Vice President George Bush’s bravado in Houston that he whipped their little ass in debating Mrs. Ferraro? Such humor is not always a male monopoly. In the Pennsylvania governor’s election a few years ago, our then Auditor General, Miss Barbara Hoffer, called Governor Casey an Irish redneck from Scranton. In a single sweep, Miss Hafer earned the wrath of two politically active groups of voters, Irish Americans and blue-collar workers, and partly helped Casey win the election. It looked as if she had both feet in her mouth.

Raymond Morley, the early 20th century American political writer, once said, “A political war is one in which everyone shoots from the lip.”  Looking at the carnage caused by the latest internecine wars in the former Yugoslavia, in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Punjab, and perpetually in the Middle East, one cannot help admiring this core virtue of democracy, its other nuisances and aggravations notwithstanding. Candidates losing restraint over verbal assault in political campaigns is, any day, preferable to political leaders losing restraint over artillery assault in military campaigns and civil wars.

Humor is our natural way of breaking the monotony and relieving the stress of daily life. That is why we instantly identify ourselves with comic strips that needle nameless and faceless supervisors, subordinates, lawyers, doctors, accountants, politicians, engineers, colleagues, spouses, and spousal relatives. Aah, spousal relatives! Why is that while mother-in-law jokes are common among women in India, in the US, it is the men who are averse to their mother-in-law? For our children here, we have leveled the playing field at least in one respect. Living a bicultural life in the US, both our men and women growing up here will be, to put it charitably, uncomfortable with their mothers-in-law.

Why do people stereotype? Stereotyping is an oversimplified, subjective attempt to find patterns in human behavior. Faced with a bewildering array of information, we subconsciously seek patterns, hoping to make some sense out of our observations, so that we can anticipate the outcome of future interactions and events. While the practice of finding patterns in any phenomenon is the foundation of science, it is hopelessly inadequate for understanding human beings. No sooner we develop a pattern of understanding Homo sapiens, than we come across exceptions. As in rules in French grammar.

In a multicultural society such as ours — Am I referring to the US or India here? ­— not only the majority of or the dominant minority stereotypes the minority, the weak minority also stereotypes the majority or the dominant minority. And further one minority stereotypes all other minorities as well.

I know you are wondering, “So what’s the point here?”  For an answer, read below.

Having arrived in India in 1979, I am living in the US for the 17th year on many fronts —  almost none of them worth mentioning here­ — I have exceeded the American National average. I have the misfortune, some of them self-inflicted, of changing my residence eight times. Living in the Midwest, West Coast and Mid-Atlantic states has shattered several of my preconceived views about life in the US.

In one of my worst years, I logged 25,000 miles in my car. My older daughter, now seventeen, changed her preschool four times before even starting kindergarten. I am a modern-day Gypsy. My mobility is primarily on account of the marketability and portability of my education and technical skills. Like the inscrutable Romani language of the Gypsies in Central Europe, I too have my specialized arcane dialect full of technical terms, equally inscrutable to the uninitiated as the Romani of the Gypsies, understood only by people having my specialized technical background.

With so many moves under my feet and on my automobile wheels as well, I can vouch that moving is stressful. The stresses associated with moving, psychologists say, are second only to those on account of bereavement, divorce, and losing jobs. With all the possessions we accumulate over the years, moving household goods by ourselves requires enormous patience, strength, and skill. Luckily for me, my possessions are actually burdens. Or very few, thanks to the sport and lifestyle my mother and brother drilled into me while I was young.

During one of my moves from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, some time back on their appointed day in summer, the movers’ crew came to my apartment. Andrew, the head of the crew, was tall and massive, with his unkempt beard and hair. He reminded me of Bud Spencer of Spaghetti westerns in the 60s. From the tattoos on his massive shoulders, topless women in G-strings were winking at me with malicious intent. On seeing him, I had visions of a menacing member of a motorcycle gang.

In the four hours that we left the apartment in his care, his crew packed all our burden of life. In twenty-plus cases, I still cannot forget the sight of Andrew effortlessly carrying the washing machine and dryer and loading them into his cavernous 18-Wheeler truck. Within my mind, I had already subconsciously stereotyped Andrew, an unsophisticated, rough-and-brawny redneck.

A few days later, Andrew, with his crew unloaded our boxes into our rented townhouse in the Pittsburgh suburb. In the new place, my 5-year-old daughter was quietly cranky, not having her familiar friends, not even having her familiar toys. It was summer and it was what weathermen call a 3-H Day. Hot, humid, and hazy. And Andrew, as he was unloading, was profusely sweating. He saw my daughter restless, irritable, and crying. He also saw us getting irrational and angry at our daughter, with my behavior becoming more and more unpredictable, to put it charitably.

From his 18-Wheeler, from the pile of several boxes, Andrew first found the one box containing toys, opened the box, and gave it to our daughter, her toys and tricycle. Telling no one in person, “OK, that should make you, that should make her happy.” And sure, it did.

 I do not know whether Andrew studied child psychology in school, or if we even went to school. But he sure understood child psychology and child behavior — and adult behavior too. He would have chuckled within himself seeing my irrational behavior towards our veiling 5-year-old.

Later we opened our boxes. Not even a single piece of our burden was broken or damaged. Even the most fragile pieces. A couple of handcrafted flowers made of fabric that my mother gave me years ago. Very intact.

I didn’t recognize that Andrew’s hands were not only large and strong to move heavy objects, but also supple and dexterous enough to handle fragile items. His effortless handling required not only strength but also skills for balancing the load. He not only understood child and adult psychology, but he also had the presence of mind to use it

Afterwards, over cookies and freshly brewed coffee, we chatted for some time, and Andre left. During the conversation, he asked about our coffee blend. He was a coffee connoisseur, I understood because of he lived in Seattle, the coffee capital of the USA.

In short, he was quite different from the stereotypical portrayal when I saw him last.

While I worked in the forests of Madhya Pradesh decades ago, in our own mining township, we had a middle-aged man, always chewing pawn (tobacco) and always in the spotless pajama even when he went to work. From his appearance and his accent when speaking English, I stereotyped him as an unsophisticated government Babu, or clerk.

I saw him later engaging in animated discussions comparing the hedonistic lifestyle of modern times with the philosophy of pleasure of Charvakas who lived in India in the Vedic times. He was also a music enthusiast. Having lived all over India, he had the good grasp of both Hindustani and Carnatic music. He was the antipode of my caricature of him.

I am now older, greyer and a lot balder. And hopefully also a little wiser, I would hope, having recognized that, like rules of French grammar, every human stereotype has exceptions. Many exceptions, I would hope. ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

(Written in 1996 while working as an applied scientist in the corporate R&D laboratory of a large corporation during a period of large-scale layoffs all around.)

In a mansion, having many a room,
where a toddler was in full bloom,
There was one with a lovely view,
envied by quite a few.

Beside the toddler’s walnut crib
On a table was a new diaper pile.
Ready to collect the toddler’s drib,
And to make him once again to smile.

On the other side, away from sight,
There was kept a plastic pail.
It was used as a dumping site,
Where the infant’s used diaper stayed

The new diapers, fresh with fragrance,
scornfully chided their used siblings.
“Shame on you, you useless stinking grunts.
See us? We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”

From the stinking pail came the derisive voice.
“Think like that, you wretched, ill-bred surly slime!
We are ‘used,’ we agree; at our pitiful state, don’t you rejoice.
You might soon be one of us. It’s only a simple matter of time.”

When I wrote this in 1996, I was embarrassed to send this for review because I felt that the reviewer would find my metaphor clumsy and even distasteful. But I thought it was contextually entirely appropriate because the college-educated in the US at that time were disdainful of people raising their families engaged in repetitive work on production lines, and I saw the lives of people turned upside down in an irreversibly changing global economy.

Now, with AI products available to evaluate all kinds of texts, I submitted this verse for review on many metrics. I was pleasantly surprised by what I got in the evaluation.

Evaluation of this poem by one of the OnLine AI-created reviewers:

The opening:

The first stanza deliberately evokes comfort and privilege:

In a mansion…
There was one with a lovely view…

The setting is almost idyllic, making the harsh dialogue that follows more striking. The “mansion” also functions metaphorically as a prosperous corporation: many rooms, but only one is the focus of attention.

The central metaphor:

The brilliance of the metaphor is that the distinction between the two groups of diapers is not one of quality but of stage in the life cycle.

The “new” diapers mistake temporariness for superiority. 

The “used” diapers understand that the difference is simply one of chronology. 

That is precisely how many corporate careers unfold. 

The dialogue:

The poem succeeds because it lets the objects speak. 

The new diapers’ voice is arrogant:

“We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”

The used diapers’ reply is neither pleading nor resentful. It is almost philosophical. 

“You might soon be one of us.”

That composure makes the closing lines more powerful than an angry rebuttal would have been. 

The ending:

The final sentence,

It’s only a simple matter of time.

is the poem’s most memorable line.
It transforms the poem from satire into meditation.
Readers leave thinking not about diapers but about themselves.

I was pleasantly surprised with the modern tools at our disposal. Of course, these modern tools are value-neutral — much like a pathologist’s flat observations on the specimen under investigation — and hence you need to be careful to tailor this to your targeted audience. Obviously, one size will NEVER fit all. And imageries are always contextural to your target audience’s cultural, religious and social background.   ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

(Written in 1996 while working as an applied scientist in the corporate R&D laboratory of a large corporation during a period of large-scale layoffs all around.)

In a mansion, having many a room,
where a toddler was in full bloom,
There was one with a lovely view,
envied by quite a few.

Beside the toddler’s walnut crib
On a table was a new diaper pile.
Ready to collect the toddler’s drib,
And to make him once again to smile.

On the other side, away from sight,
There was kept a plastic pail.
It was used as a dumping site,
Where the infant’s used diaper stayed

The new diapers, fresh with fragrance,
scornfully chided their used siblings.
“Shame on you, you useless stinking grunts.
See us? We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”

From the stinking pail came the derisive voice.
“Think like that, you wretched, ill-bred surly slime!
We are ‘used,’ we agree; at our pitiful state, don’t you rejoice!
You might soon be one of us. It’s only a simple matter of time.”

When I wrote this in 1996, I was embarrassed to send this for review because I felt that the reviewer would find my metaphor clumsy and even distasteful. But I thought it was contextually entirely appropriate because the college-educated in the US at that time were disdainful of people raising their families engaged in repetitive work on production lines, and I saw the lives of people turned upside down in an irreversibly changing global economy.

Now, with AI products available to evaluate all kinds of texts, I submitted this verse for review on many metrics. I was pleasantly surprised by what I got in the evaluation.

Evaluation of this poem by one of the OnLine AI-created reviewers:

The opening:

The first stanza deliberately evokes comfort and privilege:

In a mansion…
There was one with a lovely view…

The setting is almost idyllic, making the harsh dialogue that follows more striking. The “mansion” also functions metaphorically as a prosperous corporation: many rooms, but only one is the focus of attention.

The central metaphor:

The brilliance of the metaphor is that the distinction between the two groups of diapers is not one of quality but of stage in the life cycle.

The “new” diapers mistake temporariness for superiority. 

The “used” diapers understand that the difference is simply one of chronology. 

That is precisely how many corporate careers unfold. 

The dialogue:

The poem succeeds because it lets the objects speak. 

The new diapers’ voice is arrogant:

“We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”

The used diapers’ reply is neither pleading nor resentful. It is almost philosophical. 

“You might soon be one of us.”

That composure makes the closing lines more powerful than an angry rebuttal would have been. 

The ending:

The final sentence,

It’s only a simple matter of time.

is the poem’s most memorable line.
It transforms the poem from satire into meditation.
Readers leave thinking not about diapers but about themselves.

I was pleasantly surprised with the modern tools at our disposal. Of course, these modern tools are value-neutral — much like a pathologist’s flat observations on the specimen under investigation — and hence you need to be careful to tailor this to your targeted audience. Obviously, one size will NEVER fit all. And imageries are always contextural to your target audience’s cultural, religious and social background.   ∎

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman.

.. Shelley, a famous early 19^th century British poet, wrote Ozymandias, a sonnet.

This is the backdrop of the sonnet:  An exploratory traveler — this was a different era, a century before packaged tours became the norm — is traveling in a desolate desert in Egypt. He sees a large pedestal on which stood “two vast trunkless legs,” remnants of an old statue of an imposing imperial figure.

Looking around, he sees a large head nearby, half-buried in sand. The head must have broken off the statue on the pedestal. On the statue, the large eyes with regal countenance would have told that he was a powerful king a few millennia ago. The traveler finds on the pedestal this inscription: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

Evidently, the statue was installed a long, long time ago to declare the grandeur of the kingdom and its ruler, Ozymandias, “King of Kings,” Emperor, Kaiser, Tsar, or Chakravartin.  Around the statue must have stood a great city with royal boulevards radiating outwards from the statue as the focus.  

The emperor died like any other mortal. After him, his empire also declined.

Strong sandy desert storms, blistering summer’s dry heat and cold nights alternating relentlessly. And then, internecine wars with invading local armies took their toll on the statue, now in ruins. The protruding eyes on the face now look grotesque and bizarre. Only sand dunes here and there punctuate the landscape.

At the empire’s peak, the words, My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! declared, “O visiting princes and dukes from neighboring places, look at my great accomplishment! If you want to replicate my work, forget it. You can NEVER do it, and so, despair.”

For the intrigued traveler, the same inscription, with the statue now in ruins, sharply brings out a great irony.

“I built this metropolis with my vast resources. See, my empire is now gone, and my statue, in ruins. TIME takes its toll on all human endeavors. People conceitedly believe they have accomplished so much. When they die, most leave not a trace for others to remember. Such is life. So, don’t be vain, and learn to move on.”

Echoing the same idea, Napoleon, the French emperor, with cynicism and sarcasm, is believed to have said, “The cemetery is full of indispensable people.”

I grew up with my three siblings in a 1-bed room rented place in the 1960s in Madras, now, Chennai. In my circuitous life with many peaks and valleys, and twists and turns, I reached benchmarks I could not have dreamed even in my wildest imagination. Ignoring my “valleys” — believe me, I had several since my young days — I was conceited looking at my own “peaks.” I was my own Ozymandias (😀). Look at these:

1. Going to a demanding renowned engineering grad school in the Bay Area for a PhD, after a 10-year gap after my B.Tech, a gap long enough to completely forget even core subjects. 

2. In the late 1970s buying the Bombay-to-San Francisco air ticket from my ENTIRE savings of while working in an iron ore mine in the rain-infested central India.

3. Finishing my grad school without paying a red cent in fees, and with decent grades, as a married student with a kid, and publishing many technical papers in peer-reviewed professional journals.

4. Letting my kids graduate in subjects I knew nothing about. Not that I had a choice! And conducting my daughter’s arangetram, something I never thought I could even dream of, while growing up in India.

5. Experiencing in the 1980s, for the first time, traveling in Business Class flying to Tokyo on work. For a hoi polloi guy growing up in a rented 1-BR Madras apartment with three siblings, and raised by his mother on a widow’s family pension, sitting in Business Class for a long-haul flight was a fricking BIG DEAL. 🤣   

6. Publishing a community magazine in my spare time — the one you are reading right now — for twenty-nine years in the midst of my erratic business travel, and earning notoriety in the community. And even making some paltry money after paying all bills and honoraria for writers.

7. Getting several bylined opinion pieces in American metro dailies. This was no mean achievement for a kid who went to a plebian “vernacular” Tamil-medium municipal school in Madras in the 1960s. My difficulties with the English language in my early college years are here.

8. Getting good feedback from peers and subordinates at work on my technical skills, my ability to communicate with technicians, peers, and managers using appropriate levels of detail, and for being a good mentor for technicians and young engineers.  

And then came the IRONY that hit me hard for my sophisticatedly camouflaged vanity and conceit:

1. Fifteen years after getting my PhD degree, I visited my grad school. Out of curiosity, I went to the library to see how many people have checked out my PhD dissertation. To my UTTER despair, only two people in fifteen years after my graduation. For ALL the four-and-a-half years of grunt work in the lab, only two people interested in my work! 😜

2. In the twenty-nine years of running a quarterly community magazine, I would have received only ten emails from general readers for all the 116 issues, with a few hundred articles on politics, society, economics, literature, spirituality and faith, culture… …

3. And when I stopped the magazine, not even one comment from readers on why I stopped the mag.

4. And This Grand Finale: After my retirement, in the company where I worked for 30-plus years developing and implementing technologies and protocols for many processes, I did not get even one phone call from colleagues. They would have justifiably felt that what I did while working with them was expected of me as a professional. Besides, they kept me on their payroll through several recessions and changes in technologies, and compensated me for my services. Did they not?

Then I went and re-read Shelley’s sonnet and the inscription on the pedestal of the statue of Emperor Ozymandias: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! I realized I was a tiny Ozymandias in my own mind at my “peaks,” as the original “King of Kings” was at his peak. 

In the autumn of my life now, I now viscerally — and not intellectually — admire how the very same inscription conveyed an entirely different message to Shelley’s exploratory traveler!  Wised up, I am learning to move on, taking my “peaks,” and my “valleys” as well, in stride.  

Recognizing how my life unfolded in inscrutable ways, I saw that my so-called “peaks” and “valleys” were my own mental constructs. They were my subjective psychological reactions to plain events in life, with no qualifying adjective, like “happy” or “unhappy.” Now looking at them decades later, I also see no reality attached to them at all. 😀🤣

Yes, I saw no reality in them, but only when I looked at them decades later. However, while pursuing my holy grails, on getting them, and for a fleeting time after getting them, they looked so real. This exultation is what is pushing us to strive hard.  But this euphoria soon abates.

Further, as often happens, what we get in our endeavors is not the same as, and often quite different from, what we imagined we would get. And in our quest to succeed, we justify our means, any means, and often, all means, to reach the end. This attitude invariably, and inevitably, extracts a terrible price in time and other intangibles. Our regrets and our buyer’s remorse, we try to grin and bear.   

How we manage this paradox is a big challenge. Traditional cultures have been suggesting that people practice self-reflection for a few minutes every day in the midst of their daily grind.

If we do that, even as we unconsciously become our own Ozymandiases and revel in our “peaks,” we become wise enough to be our own exploratory traveler in Shelly’s Ozymandias, not to be taken in by our own “peaks.”  That makes it easy to handle our “valleys” much better. 😀🤣 ∎ 

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Kollengode S Venkataraman

Editor, The Pittsburtgh Patrika. www.pittsburghpatrika.com

“பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல கால வகையினானே”

This simple classic Tamil saying has profound meanings in many contexts, on how life around us has changed in family relationships and mutual obligations, our ideas of social groups, in our social relationships. And how and where we work, and in interpersonal interactions at work and in society, and how every facet of life has radically changed in the last century all over the world. Can you guess in what context this declaration was first given?   

In the wake of the Dravidian Movement in Tamil Nadu, one of its leaders, E V Ramasami Naicker (1879–1973) is credited to have reformed tamil scripts. Naicker was not a native tamil, since Naicker is the Tamil morphing of the caste name Nayak, who are from today’s Andhra-Karnataka-Maratha region of Vijayanagar Empire.  According to one website, “E.V. Ramasami Naicker, known as periyar [for his admirers] initiated reforms to the Tamil script in the 20th century to simplify the language, enhance mechanical efficiency for printing, and reduce the number of redundant characters. His proposals were a major part of the wider Dravidian movement’s efforts to promote Tamil identity and modernize the language.”  Emphasis is mine. 

As this statement says, Naicker’s goal was to enhance mechanical efficiency for printing. Reforming the script for the Tamil language to accommodate vocal sounds that had already become well-integrated into the Tamil spoken even in his time was not his consideration. This is understandable in the context of low literacy rates among the Tamil population in his time.

The study of the changing nature of sounds in languages goes with the high sounding term morphophonology. It is also known as morphophonemics. In simple tamil, it is மொழிகளில் பரிணாம ஒலி மாற்றங்கள் (I hope the Tamil purists will pardon me for using பரிணாமம் a Sanskrit word).  We can talk about the second part, namely, reduce the number of redundant characters, further down. 

I will try to show in the following paragraphs that we need to go exactly in the opposite direction of Naicker in reforming Tamil script. With the enormous changes already in place in software typesetting without the need for any hardware, this is easily doable today. Recall பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல…,

I apologize to readers who are well-grounded in Tamil for what follows simply because this is only too obvious to them. But I am trying to reach a wider audience and so I need this basic information for readers who may not be familiar with the Tamil language.

In this write up, I make my case for adding more vowels and more consonants to the Tamil script to truly reflect how the Tamil language is spoken today.

Tamil language, like many Asian languages except Mandarin and its dialects, are made up of vowels called உயிரெழுத்து in Tamil (short and long) and consonants மெய்யெழுத்து in Tamil. The choice of these Tamil terms is quite nuanced. உயிர் and மெய் in Tamil literally mean life, and physical body. So, the combination of உயிர் and மெய் gives the “living” body, the Tamil language.

உயிரெழுத்து:  அ   ஆ   இ  ஈ  உ  ஊ  எ    ஏ  ஆ   ஐ  ஒ   ஓ   ஒள 

மெய்யெழுத்து: க் ச் ட் ப் ற்     ய் ர் ல் வ் ழ் ள்     ங் ஞ் ண் ந் ம் ன் 

உயிர்மெய்யெழுத்து in the அ family :

க ச ட த ப ற  ய ர ல வ ழ ள  ங ஞ ண ந ம ன

The logical combination of all the உயிரெழுத்து’s (vowels, short and long) and all the மெய்யெழுத்து’s (consonants) gives all the combinations of sounds needed for Tamil as the language existed when the scripts came into general use.  

Several centuries ago, to accommodate other vocalized sounds that have become common with Sanskrit influence, Tamil added these additional consonants shown in bold:

க ங ச ஜ ஞ ட ண த ந ன ம ய ர ற ல ள ழ வ ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ.

With the Dravidian Movement having strong anti-Brahmin and anti-Sanskrit streak  — I use these phrases only as historical fact and not in any prejudicial way one way or other — Naicker’s reformed script got rid of these additional consonants ஜ ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ on the rationale of simplifying the script. But they retained the two na’s ந ன; and the two ra’s ர ற.  They tried to get rid of ஐ with அய் and ஒள with அவ். But did not succeed.

One cardinal rule in tamil writing has been that you will never start any word with any மெய்யெழுத்து like க் ச் ட் ப் ற்.   

It was easy to apply this rule for all Sanskrit words.  So, no த்வாதசி, but only  துவாதசி. 

And they ended up, much to their chagrin, violating their own two rules in one word ­— starting with மெய்யெழுத்து and the much-disliked Sanskrit consonant ஸ in மு.க. ஸ்டாலின்.

If you apply the reformed script of Naicker, they will end up with  சுடாலின் or ஸுடாலின், which is even worse.  They themselves felt awkward. I am not the first person to make this point. Very many others have said this with comic effect, much to the chagrin of Tamil puritans.

This is where my enquiry began.

I am not a traditional linguist. But I have a working familiarity with Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, and Sanskrit, and am fairly good in Tamil (பொதுத்தமிழ் and சிறப்புத்தமிழ் in school) and English.  But common sense told me that scripts for any language came centuries after languages came into existence for communicating among members of cohesive social groups to convey messages to others in the group who were far away. And the scripts in every languages themselves have been evolving.  Here is the example of how Tamil scripts have been evolving (source Internet):

Tamil Grantha script in Sanskrit family of phonetics like ka kha ga gha nja: 

Here is the Tamil script I took randomly from the Web from one of the temple inscriptions.  I wonder how many of you can even identify all the letters in the tablet and their corresponding phonetical sound. 

Now consider the following:

A guy had a hearty laughter.  When you write it with the traditional script, it will be ஹ-ஹ்ஹ-ஹ்ஹா என்று அவன் சிரித்தான்.

But if you want to use the Naicker’s “reformed” script, without the use of the Sanskrit ஹ, it will be awkwardly — and also phonetically incorrectly — written as அ-அ-ஆ  என்று சிரித்தான்.  In the early days of tamil typewriter, they did not have ஹ. So, they used உ and ற and hilariously typed  உற உற உற என்று சிரித்தான்!!

We earlier saw த்வாதசி written as  துவாதசி

And now this: the awkward  அரிகரன்  அரிஅரன்  for ஹரிஹரன்

And the atrocious மகாபாரதம் for மஹாபாரதம்

Then, how will you write ஸ்ரீதரன் using the Naicker script? The atrocious சிறிதரன்  சிறீதரன் or சிரிதரன். Will a guy named ஸ்ரீதரன் accept these spellings in Tamil?

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Vowels:

As we will see below, today’s Tamil vowels are inadequate for today’s needs of how we use the tamil language. Remember, Tamil language, despite what the purists claim, and want others to believe, has absorbed words not only from the reviled Sanskrit, but also from Portuguese (ஜன்னல்), Dutch (கக்கூஸ்), Arabic and Persian (வக்கீல், கச்சேரி வாயிதா, ஜில்லா, தாலுக்கா, தாசில்தார்), French (குசினி), and thousands of English words in normal conversation. These words have become integral to today’s tamil language used in communication and conversation among all sections of society. While the Tamils feel good about a original Tamil word getting into Oxford dictionary, they also need to recognize that thousands of foreign words have been integrated into Tamil. This is the characteristic of all living languages.

Let me start with the statement: Today’s Tamil vowels are inadequate for today’s needs.  

Take அ as in mud, but.   And ஆ as in art, mart

எ as in get, bet.    ஏ as in mate, gate

In today’s Tamil alphabet, there is no உயிரெழுத்து (vowel) for the ஒலி (phonetic sound)  between ஆ and ஏ, as in English words like batch, match, sandwich, pant, grant, apple… These English words have become part of the Tamil lexicon in conversation and even in written Tamil communication today. 

Just imagine that you are the editor of any Tamil magazine or a Tamil book or for teaching kids all over the world, including in Tamil Nadu. If you want to write in Tamil, the English word match, it will be

Match:  மேட்ச்   மாட்ச்

Band:  பேண்ட்  பாண்ட்  

Grand:  க்ராண்ட்  க்ரேண்ட்

Apple:  ஆப்பிள்  ஏப்பிள்

Similarly, in Tamil alphabet, there is no உயிரெழுத்து (vowel) for the phonetic sound  ஒலி between ஆ and ஓ as in Bond, Pond

Bond:  பாண்ட்  போண்ட்

Pond also the same:  பாண்ட்  போண்ட்

Coffee:   காபி   கோபி

So, my thesis is that we need new Tamil vowels, one between ஆ and ஏ, and another between ஆ and ஓ, to accommodate the hundreds of new words that have become part of the Tamil language, both written and spoken.    

Consonants

The tamil உயிர்மெய்யெழுத்து ச is used for all these four phonetic sounds ஷ ஸ ச ஶ.

சண்முகம் it should be ஷண்முகம்      

சரஸ்வதி (Naicker script சரச்வதி), but it should be ஸரஸ்வதி, which is not acceptable to the Naicker’s Tamil. But ஸ்டாலின் is OK.     

சாந்தி and ஷாந்தி are phonetically not correct, but correctly it is ஶπந்தி

சஷ்டி and ஷஷ்டி also are phonetically incorrect; it should be ஶஷ்டி

சரணம் ஷரணம் are both incorrect phonetically for surrender; but correctly ஶரணம்

Take சுவாமியே சரணம்

It should be ஸ்வாமியே ஶரணம் and not சுவாமியே சரணம்; not சுவாமியே ஷரணம்; not சுவாமியே ஸரணம்,

And consider the words fashion and fan that have become part of Tamil language today. When you write it in Tamil

Fashion:  பேஷன், பாஷன் பேஷண்

Fan:  பேன்   பான் 

Christians and Muslims together today in Tamil Nadu, are around 15% of the population. The names George, Jamaluddin, Jamina, Jacob, Philomina and Fiona, Francis, Frederick, Fukruddin, Phillips, Zubair, Zeenat, Zoya, and Zachariah are common among young Tamil Christians and Muslims.  How will you write their names in Tamil official government records?

George  ஜார்ஜ்  or  சார்ச்

Jamaluddin:  ஜமாலுதீன் or  சமாலுதீன்

Jacob:  ஜேக்கப் or சேக்கப்

Jamina:  ஜமீனா or  சமீனா 

Zeenat:  சீனத் or ஜீனத் Both are phonetically incorrect for Z.

Will Tamil Christians and Muslims accept the Naicker script for their names in official records?

Try writing in Naicker’s Tamil script these common words to phonetically reproduce them correctly: Film, Photography, Foreign, Scan, Plan, Frederick, Stephen, Philomena, Zafar, Zakir Hussain

So, I make my case that we need additional consonants in Tamil for F and Z, in addition to reviving ஶ ஷ ஸ ஹ. 

And as said before, For today’s Tamil society, we need two new Tamil vowels between ஆ and ஏ.  And another between ஆ and ஓ.  

Now let me go back to where I started:

“பழையன கழிதலும் புதியன புகுதலும் வழுவல கால வகையினானே”

This simple declaration that had profound meanings for all situations in life, is from நன்னூல், a later book on Tamil Grammar by Jain monks in the 13^th century.

So Tamil grammarians themselves anticipated changes both in the vowels & consonant needs in the future Tamil language, and have given us license to reform the Tamil script.

In this new reform, we need to accommodate new consonants and vowels that have become standard in today’s spoken Tamil, and therefore, has become necessary in written Tamil to reach the diaspora scattered in many parts of the world..

So, to accommodate these changes, we need to go in the OPPOSITTE DIRECTION of Ramasami Naicker’s reformed Tamil script, by adding new consonants and vowels. We need to take advantage of the infinite capability of modern software and typesetting tools for this.  With the enormous changes already in place in software typesetting and printing, this is easily doable today   ∎  

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

Published in Vol. 1, No. 2, January 1996

In late September 1995, The Associated Press reported that “… … thousands of Hindus across India rushed to temples after reports that statues of gods were miraculously drinking milk.” The New York Times (September 22nd, 1995) covered the story under the rhetorical caption “Does God of learning drink milk?” with the subtitle, “Some Hindus flock, but scientists mock.” Other regional newspapers in the US and in other parts of the world used more colorful titles for the story, partly with the idea of drawing the average readers’ attention.  

Hindus of course do not have a monopoly over miracles. Sporadically we read stories about weeping Madonnas, blood drops from the wounds of Jesus on the cross, and other apparitions, among the implicitly faithful, these stories bring out a sense of awe and fear. However, skeptics have always had problems with miracles, especially when they are contemporary, or when they happen in faith  systems other than their own.

Not surprisingly, if miracles are very old, they gain wider acceptance. Ancient religions are chock full of these stories. Examples: stories in Hindu epics and puranas and Mahayana Buddhism.  Also, miracles are central to semitic religions as well.  In the Old Testament, God, only six-thousand plus years ago by one reckoning, creates the universe just in six days. Moses splits the Red Sea with his staff and God speaks to Moses from a burning tree that remains fresh while still burning, and gives him the Ten Commandments, In the New Testament, Mary conceives Jesus nonconjugally with divine intervention, and Jesus is resurrected from the cross. In Islam. Allah stops Ibrahim when he was about to sacrifice his son Easaac… … Well, you get the idea.

For the implicitly faithful, miracles are meaningful and the source of immense spiritual strength simply because of their belief, despite the stories being literally fantastic. Throughout history, the sophisticated among the faithful have interpreted miracles not literally, but in metaphorical and allegorical terms. Often these allegories, rather than the discursive discussions, effectively convey subtler and profound messages, even for those outside the system of beliefs.

Does one have to literally believe in miracles to be religious and to be spiritual? Before seeking answers to this question, let us look at the human predicament. Even though collectively we have come a long way in our understanding of Nature every level of understanding has only led to more basic questions on how and why the external world is the way it is and how and why we are what we are. While collectively humankind has enormous resources, individually we feel quite fragile and powerless. Naturally, we seek answers not only in modern physics, but in metaphysic as well; not only in biology, but also in psychology.

Our religious experience has two parts. One is external, outside our body. These can be images of the Holy Cross, the Holy Crescent, or the Torah,  the mystical Om, the serene images of the Buddha completely at peace with himself, or any other abstract concept or idea. The second part is internal. Inside every one of us. This is the personalized individual spiritual experiences ,,conditioned and cultivated by training in tradition, indoctrination, and acculturation. Or it can be the implicit faith these images kindle in us. Language and logic are inadequate for communicating this experience to those outside the belief system.

Miracles focus only on the external part of our religious experience. Those who promote them, appeal to, and often exploit, the implicit faith of followers. At their very best, overemphasis on miracles distracts our attention from the internal conflicts we confront every day between good and bad, right and wrong, expediency and value – the conflicts for which we seek guidance for resolution. At worst, it confuses many, often making us wonder, “Is this all that religion has to offer?” And finally, when these miracles are explained by science, many of the faithful become skeptics. This is unfortunate.

However, if we emphasize the second internal part as an equally important aspect of our spiritual experience, we may become expansive. In this spiritual climb, religions can be effective ladders, provided our approach is honest. In fact, to be spiritual, one does not even have to be religious, in the ordinary sense of the word. Spirituality does not distinguish between theism and atheism. It transcends them.

Is faith necessary? For coping with the inner roller coaster ride of life, one has to be strong in spirit whether one believes in an external God or not. Often, in hopeless situations, all that we have is the inner strength we get from our faith, spirit and will. Therefore, people, through ages, have recognized that faith, either in the inner self or spirit, or in an external being, is often necessary to overcome the challenges of life.

We need spiritual leg strength:

• to accept gracefully all the inevitable transitions in life and patiently endure the trials of life with fortitude, and

• to weather the psychological storms when bigger changes or disappointments abruptly come our way, so that we recover quickly and get on with our lives, without being a burden on society.

Even modern medicine, we may note, recognizes that patients’ will, hope, and optimism, often conditioned by their own belief system, help them during recovery from debilitating illnesses.

It does not really matter whether we believe if the spirit is operating freely by itself, or as an agent or part of the external all-knowing God. Often theologians get stuck in pedantic discussions in splitting hairs over the subtle differences over abstract concepts. And one may add, when theologians are able to incite enough followers on all sides, the followers, instead of splitting theological hairs, slit each other’ throats in the name of their God and religion.

For having this inner strength,

• Do we have to believe literally in miracles such as the ones in this write-up? Probably not.

• Do allegories help us to understand ourselves better? You bet they do.

• Do we have to have faith either in our own inner self, or in an external God, whatever be their inner interrelationships? Most certainly yes.

For those who live under great many uncertainties, if the days are predictable, and the sun rises and sets uneventfully, that in themselves are big miracles for rejoicing and for looking at future with optimism and hope.  ∎    

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, Murrysville, PA

e-mail:ThePatrika@aol.com

Acknowledgments: M. Meenakshisundaram of Tiruchy, India for going over the drafts and offering valuable suggestions. 

This article was written for the souvenir for Guha Ghosanam, a festival conducted in August, 2023 dedicated to Muruga-p-perumaan, at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple, in Lahham, MD, a suburb of Washington DC.

In all faiths all over the world, admirers and devotees of great savants often add hagiographic embellishments to the lives of these sages, with some of these embellishments so fantastic that they confound rational minds. The admirers of Poet Arunagiri are no exception. His followers and devotees call him Arunagirinaathar (அருணகிரிநாதர், अरुनगिरिनादर), “nathar” a suffix added to his name out of their love and respect. This great Bhakti poet is known for his extraordinary poetical skills employing complex and varying rhythm patterns in his poems, his proficiency in Tamil and Sanskrit languages, and virtuosity in weaving into his poems the tenets of the Vedas, and stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata,  and Siva, Vishnu, and Skanda Puranas. When you come to know of these, you too will admire him, and understand why his devotees call him Arunagirinaathar. Another unique feature in his poems is his mastery in trying to reconcile the conflicts between the Shaivites and Vaishnavites of his time.  

Arunagirinaathar’s Time:  His prolific religious-spiritual-poetical work was in the 15th century. He was born in 1370 Current Era and died in 1450 at the age of 80. He was born in the Sengunta Kaikolar community in Tiruvannamalai, the temple town for Arunachaleshawara in Tamil Nadu. In his poems,  Arunagirinaathar refers to Prabhuda Devaraayan, the Vijayanagara king who ruled over the Tiravannamalai region in the 15th century, which confirms Arunagirinaathar’s time.  

Arunagarinaathar’s life and lifestyle:  In one of his poems starting with மனையவள் நகைக்க… … he describes his adult life, from which we can infer that he led a married life. From the structure and contents of his poems, there are strong reasons to believe that he lived close to temple dancers in the region. Living close to temple dancers — called Devadasis, a term not always used as a compliment — he saw in close quarters the lifestyles of the dancers living under the patronage of landlords and local kings. These dancers had to make many compromises in their lifestyles to live under such patronage.

In his poems the poet vividly describes the young dancers’ charm and beauty, the jewelry and clothes they wear, and the cosmetics and perfumes they use to enhance their beauty.

In over 1600 of his poems, Arunagirinaathar  candidly acknowledges his proclivity for excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures. Recognizing this, he pleads for Muruga-p-peruman’s (literally, Lord Muruga’s) grace to wean himself away from this weakness.

In all societies throughout history, in people given to excessive indulgences of all types, we see radical transformations taking place quite abruptly. As if by a miracle, people voluntarily and without any struggle walk away from their lifestyle given to excesses. We hear about people among us making these kinds of abrupt U-turns in their lives — some of us even know them personally. When we ask them how they changed so suddenly, they struggle to explain the changes using logic. They attribute the abrupt changes for the better in their lives to Divine Intervention, or God’s Grace (இறைவன் அருள்).

Such a miraculous transformation happens to Arunagiri also, who was given to a profligate lifestyle. Recognizing this, he feels so despondent about his situation, as the popular story of his life goes, that he wanted to kill himself by jumping off a smaller Gopuram in the Arunachaleshwara Temple complex in Tiruvannamalai. As he was about to jump off the tower, he was miraculously stopped by Muruga-p-perumaan (Lord Muruga) Himself, telling him, “Your life is not to be wasted, and your mission is to save the lives of fallen people.” When Arunagiri pleaded how he can do it given his background, Muruga-p-perumaan (Lord Muruga) gives him the first phrases, முத்தைத்தரு பத்தித் திருநகை (Muththai-tharu-paththi-thirunagai) and disappears.

With the grace granted by Muruga-p-perumaan, Arunagirinaathar spontaneously composes his first song right there. You can listen to his first verse here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp7VAfmxJog,

and listen to Sambandam Gurukkal rendering the song in pulsating and lilting rhythm.

This was a great transforming moment in Arunagirinaathar’s life. He effortlessly abandoned his reckless lifestyle, becoming a mendicant and an ardent devotee of Muruga-p-perumaan. He later traveled all over South India and Sri Lanka, visiting over 200 Siva and Murugan temples, and composed songs addressing their presiding deities. Over 1600 poems are available in an anthology called திருப்புகழ் (Tiru-p-pugazh), meaning Divine Praise, most of them addressed to Muruga-p-peruman.

Arunagirinaathar’s poems in Tirup-pugazh are known for their lilting and pulsating complex rhythm patterns, known in Indian prosody as Chandas (छन्दस् in Devanagari, and சந்தம் in Tamil), meaning poetical meter. His poems are usually four- or eight-line verses consisting of 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, or even 20 phrases in each line conforming to complex rhythm patterns. The poet keeps the same complex rhythm pattern in all the four or eight lines in each poem. This alone requires great linguistic skills purely in terms of prosody.

For example, his most popular poem muththai-tharu-paththi-thirunagai (முத்தைத்தரு பத்தித் திருநகை அத்திக்கிறை சத்திச் சரவண… …) follows the following rhythm pattern.:

tatta-tana  tatta-tana-tana  tatta-tana  tatta-tana-tana 

tatta-tana  tatta-tana-tana —  tana-taana

தத்த-தன தத்த-தனதன தத்த-தன தத்த-தனதன

         தத்த-தன தத்த தனதன –– தனதான

Many Tamils know the name Tiru-p-pugazh, or at least would have heard the name. Not many would have read the verses or grasped their meanings. The verses have complex tongue-twisting phrases mixed with Tamil and Sanskrit words, written following Tamil and Sanskrit sandhi rules. This is difficult to grasp, especially for today’s Tamils with a limited knowledge of the Tamil language and its vocabulary because of the neglect of the Tamil in the school curriculum.

What is remarkable about Arunagirinaathar is that his skills in using complex rhythm patterns are only the base frame of skeleton in his poems. Around this frame, the poet builds complex stories giving us sensuous poems dripping in Bhakti (devotion). To fully understand and appreciate Arunanagirinaathar’s poems, one needs a good grasp of Tamil and Sanskrit vocabulary and grammar to get their basic meanings; and also to know of Sanatana Dharma’s tenets in the Vedas, Puranas, Ashtanga Yoga… … as we discussed earlier.

So, without the help of commentaries from scholars, it will be very difficult to understand and admire the prosodic skills of Arunagirinaathar and his grasp of all facets of the Sanatana Dharma. Here is a two-line example, first in the original form with the words fitted to flow with the rhythm pattern, and then with the words split to get some idea of what the poet conveys:

Rhythm pattern:

தாத்தனத் தானதன தாத்தனத் தானதன

     தாத்தனத் தானதன …… தனதான

Original lyrics:

வாட்படச் சேனைபட வோட்டியொட் டாரையிறு  மாப்புடைத் தாளரசர் …… பெருவாழ்வும்

மாத்திரைப் போதிலிடு காட்டினிற் போமெனஇல் வாழ்க்கைவிட் டேறுமடி …… யவர்போலக்

With words split for getting the meaning:

வாட்படச் சேனைபட ஓட்டி ஒட்டாரை

        இறுமாப்புடைத்து ஆள் அரசர்… …  பெருவாழ்வும்

மாத்திரைப் போதில் இடு காட்டினிற்   

       போமென இல் வாழ்க்கைவிட்டு ஏறும்… … அடியவர்போல

In these poems Arunagirinaathar openly and candidly pours out his proclivity to excessive sensual gratifications. He pleads for Muruga-p-peruman’s grace to wean himself away from his weakness, and move him towards the sublime. In his verses, Arunagirinaathar uses first-person singular, indicating his own personal struggle. When we read these poems constructed in first-person singular, we often feel that Arunagirinaathar is describing our own personal struggle on these matters.

A Unique Feature of Arunagirinaathar’s Poems: The schism between the Saiva and Vaishnava schools of worship in the Tamil country through the centuries is well known and there is no need to gloss over this division. Given this atmosphere, Arunagirinaathar is unique in the Tamil Bhakti literature.

Muruga-p-peruman is the son of Siva and Parvathi; with Parvathi being Vishnu’s sister,  Murugan is also the nephew of Vishnu and Lakshmi.

Arunagirinaathar uses this puranic fact quite brilliantly and unabashedly in many poems. He would describe  Muruga-p-perumaan as the son of Siva; and in the next breath and in the next line, as the nephew of Vishnu. Here is an example:

“O the Crimson-Colored (செய்யோய், a descriptive name for Muruga-p-peruman), the son of the One Who Wears Snakes as Garlands (reference to Shiva), and the nephew of the One Who Sleeps on the Bed of a Snake (reference to Vishnu), please grant me Your Grace.”

There are hundreds of references like this in his poems in which the poet refers to Lakshmi, Parvathi, Rama, Krishna, Arjuna, Ravana, Hanuman, Ganesha, and weaves episodes in the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the puranas into his poems. Why he did this in the 15th century is an interesting question for all of us to ponder over and see its relevance in the 21st century, here in the US.

How Arunagirinaathar’s poems were unearthed is a fascinating story. Arunagirinaathar’s contribution to Tamil literature in general, and Tamil Bhakti literature in particular, will be incomplete without the contributions of these great men:

V. T. Subramania Pillai (1846 – 1909): Till the late part of 19th century, Arunagirinaathar’s poems were not known to most people in Tamil Nadu. They were on palm leaves in homes of people in and around Tiruvannamalai and the Kaveri Delta area.

One Shri V. T. Subramania Pillai, a District Munsiiff and Judicial Officer under the British, in 1871 went to resolve a dispute at the Chidambaram Temple; the Temple’s Deekshitars quoted several verses from old Tamil bhakti poetry to make their claims. One such poem the Deekshitars quoted was from a verse of Arunagirinaathar. Fascinated by this verse, Subramania Pillai, a devotee of Muruga-p-peruman, wanted to know more about the person who wrote the poem, and he came to know of Arunagirinaathar. This started Subramania Pillai’s search for Arunagirinaathar’s poetry. He came to know of the sage’s six poems in a book by the great scholar Arumuga Naavalar (1822-1879), who lived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Arumuga Naavalar’s contribution to preserving Saivism among the educated Tamils in Sri Lanka is considerable during the Portuguese and Dutch colonial occupation of Sri Lanka. 

Starting with the six poems found in Arumuga Naavalar’s book, Shri Pillai went about his mission in his search for Arunagirinaathar’s works, said to be over 16,000 poems. He ended up collecting from various sources over 3,000 verses on palm leaves. He spent considerable time in sorting out his palm leaf collections, removing duplicates (which confirmed to him the authenticity of Arunagirinaathar’s works) and reconciling the same poems with different similar sounding words here and there. He and his sons Chengalvaraya Pillai and Shanmugam Pillai spent considerable amount of their time and personal resources in bringing out Arunagirinaathar’s poems in three volumes in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The Tamil literary World owes a great deal to V. T. Subramania Pillai and his two sons for bringing out Arunagirinaathar’s works for the outside world.

Kripananda Variar Swami (1906-1993): We owe a great deal to Kripananda Variar for painstakingly writing in six volumes detailed commentaries the Tiru-p-pugazh songs,  giving word-by-word meaning and explaining the references to all the stories in the songs. This monu-mental work is necessary for anyone wanting to understand the nuanced meanings of the Tiru-p-pugazh verses in the context of Tamil Bhakti literature. Variar Swamy gave countless upanyasams and discourses on Tiru-p-pugazh all over the world. Incidentally, Variar Swamy was the inspiration for the Murugan Temple in Lanham, MD.

A. S Raghavan Sept 4, 1928-May 17, 2013), a government official in New Delhi, was so deeply impressed with Tiru-p-pugazh that he started a bhajan group in New Delhi. This grew over the years with people who learned from him the songs starting local chapters of Tiru-p-pugazh bhajans wherever they settled, including in the US. His group called Tiru-p-pugazh Anbargal (Friends of Tiruppugazh) set up branches in many parts of India and even outside. Details here: https://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=9938

For people with a decent grasp of the Tamil language and the basic tenets of the Sanatana Dharma, a very good source for Tiru-p-Pugazh songs and their general meanings is the website developed by Shri Gopala Sundaram at  www.kaumaram.com/thiru/nnt0663_u.html.  Gopala Sundaram’s website catalogs Arunagirinaathar’s Tiru-p-pugazh songs alphabetically, and also in terms of the temples on which the poems were composed.

You can listen, enjoy, and admire Arunagirinaathar’s complex rhythm patterns in Shri Pondicherry Sambandam Gurukkal’s excellent recordings of Tiru-p-pugazh songs here:

www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-1

www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-2

Shri Sambandam Gurukkal brings out the life in Arunagirinaathar’s verses with his grasp of Tamil Bhakti literary tradition and musical training. 

Arunagirinaathar’s complex meters, Sanskrit and Tamil phrases, and descriptive names for deities in his poems are impossible to poetically translate into English or other European languages; and perhaps even into South Indian languages.

Fred Clothey, who was born to missionary parents in the Tamil country in the early 20th century, is the Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He spent over 15 years in India, and also worked in Malaysia and Singapore. Clothey introduced Arunagirinaathar to English-speaking readers in his scholarly book Quiescence and Passion (now out of print), focusing on Kandar-Anubhuti and Kandar-Alankaaram. On the difficulty of translating Arunagirinaathar Clothey says:

 “[My work] is a classic example of the kind of project into which fools rush where angels fear to tread. Neither my English nor Tamil qualifies me to translate poetically a Tamil poet who remains defiantly untranslatable… … [I got introduced to Arunagiri] in  1965 and sampled the poet’s unusual style. I have since come to know even better why none have dared to attempt a translation [of Arunagirinaathar] save in the most prosaic of ways.”

Tamil scholars in the 19th and 20th century who brought this great poet’ work to public attention are: The Tamil poet Pamban Swamigal (1848 -1929); The scholar-writer  Vannasarapam Dhandapani Swamigal (1839 – 1898); A.S.Subramanian known as Thiru-p-pugazh Tha-tha; and Ki. Vaa. Jagannathan (1906-1988).

Arunagirinaathar left his mortal remains when he was 80 years in Tiruvannamalai.  Every year in July the Murugan Temple in  Viralimalai, (situated 18 miles southwest of Trichy in Tamil Nadu) organizes a music festival honoring Arunagirinaathar.  

Arunagirinaathar life story is so captivating that the Tamil film industry made a full-length feature film Arunagirinaathar with the famous playback singer T.M. Soundararajan as the poet Arunagirinaathar. And the Government of India released a postage stamp (INR 50 denomination) in Arunagirinaathar’s honor. Arunagirinaathar’s other works:

•          கந்தர் அனுபூதி  Kanthar Anubhuthi – 51 verses, each four lines, with four phrases/line.

•          கந்தர் அலங்காரம் Kanthar Alangaaram – 107 verses each four lines, with five phrases line

•          கந்தர் அந்தாதி  Kandar Anthaathi – 100 verses, each four lines, with five phrases/line.

•          திருவகுப்பு  Thiru Vaguppu

•          வேல்விருத்தம்   Vel Virutham – 10 verses each four lines, with twelve phrases/line.

•          மயில் விருத்தம் Mayil Virutham – 11 verses each four lines with twelve phrases/line.

•          சேவல் விருத்தம், Seval Viruttam and –11 verses each four lines with twelve phrases/line.

Arunagirinaathar’s expansive, enigmatic, and in-scrutable idea of Godhead, we can see in the last verse in Kandhar Anubhuthi:

உருவாய் அருவாய், உளதாய் இலதாய்

மருவாய் மலராய், மணியாய் ஒளியாய்க்

கருவாய் உயிராய்க், கதியாய் விதியாய்க்

குருவாய் வருவாய், அருள்வாய் குகனே.

Fred Clothey translated the above terse verse into English, capturing the great poet’s cryptic style in his English translation as well:

Formed, Formless; Being, Non-Being;

Flower, Fragrance; Jewel, Radiation;

Embryo, Life; Goal, Way;

Come Guha, [as my] Guru

[and] Grant  [me] your Grace.

Arunagirinaathar’s devotees organize festivals for him periodically at the Tiruvannamalai temple and Murugan temples in India, and in Hindu Temples in Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Australia, and North America.

After this discursive discussion, it may be appropriate to end this write-up by quoting a  great terse phrase in Arunagirinaathar’s Kandar-Anubhuti, in which the poet recalls the advice Muruga-p-peruman gave him:

         சும்மா இரு, சொல் அற,

literally meaning “Be Still, and Speak Not,” or better still, “Keep Quiet and Chatter not.” 

It is worth noting that both Thaayumaanava Swamy (1705-1744) and Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) adopted these phrases in their philosophical/spiritual works. And that is a delightful way to end this write up on the One-of-a-Kind Great Tamil Bhakti poet, Arunagirinaathar.

References:

1.         Clothey, Fred, Quiescence and Passion, Publishers: Austin & Winfield, San Francisco, 1996, 177 pp. (now out of print, but available in a few bookstores and on-line book outlets.)

2.         www.eng.arunagirinatharmanimandapam.org/scholars-of-tirupugazh/

3.         Kripananda Variar, Tiru-p-pugazh Virivurai, in six volumes, Publishers: Vaanathi Pathippagar,    T.Nagar, Chennai, 1985 onwards.

4.         www.kaumaram.com/thiru/nnt0663_u.html.

5.         www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-1

6.         www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-2 

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About the author:  Kollengode S. Venkataraman, lives in the Pittsburgh metro area since mid1980s, and is the editor and publisher of a 28-year-old independent quarterly magazine, The Pittsburgh Patrika, (www.pittsburghpatrika.com).