The Fugitive

Let me be a little narcissist and call it the Rashrei’s Law – but it is my studied theory that you start a blog because you have so much to express and once you start it you stop being expressive. I am sure there are many bloggers out there who are at it diligently. And I am talking of random bloggers like me without any specific purpose other than to express, even rant. My BFF (stealing from teen daughter’s lingo) that is my very own husband had this sudden inspiration for writing free verse and did a pretty good job of it too. In a wifely fit of devotion and by demand from fans 😉 I set up a blog for him http://justverse.wordpress.com. He copied all the verse he had written in a few days quite prolifically into the blog and lo behold! his verse well dried up. I hope it springs afresh soon.

Meanwhile I will treat all my readers to some of my blah and doodles. Done one recently called it the ‘Fugitive’ an expression of my thus far blog activity.

Looking for the real in real

Everything that is well known in society today seems to be the result of high level marketing, self promotion, show biz. It is hard to see what is real. It is Maya or illusion brought to gross level.
Vedantic philosophy calls the life we are playing out itself as Maya. Within this illusionary life there is further illusion of power and importance, high and low, superior and inferior. Quality in mundane life is lost in shimmering hype.
The work you do is recognised not for its substance but for its projection. The sad thing is destinies are drawn out because of the utterly meaningless.
Small things in everyday life like a really good soap, a good restaurant, a good school to go to, a good author to read… all these opinions are wrapped in layers of untruth created by PR, media, hype and more hype.
Intellect and spirituality are the worst hit. These two self fulfilling needs are also dictated by hype and drama.
But what do I care? It is after all.. all MAYA

Harry Potter and the Chennai cops

What is the connection you may ask? This post results from a rather dramatic post-Harry Potter & the Half blood prince viewing at Mayajaal on Sunday night. Here we were – my husband, a sister in law, a 20 something niece, a pair of just teens with a vivid post HP imagination(PHPI) and yours truly  cruising down the drizzle drenched  roads of ECR. I was driving and I am known to favor going over the cats eyes on the road, so some amount of unusual noise was expected. But the noise amplified to a strange and ghostly rattling sound.  After we had all hyper ventilated in different directions, my daughter (one of the PHPI teens) said it could be a tyre puncture. With a punctured ego (since as a driving adult I didnt know this) I pulled over at a rather dark spot having driven just beyond the busy Panayur village crossing. And it was indeed a very flat flat. My husband trotted over to some share autos standing by to ask for help as we were tools-challenged (more bad marks for the adult driver) A young boy turned up and found that we had the jack, but not the wrench. So he asked us to wait and went off in search of the tool. My husband (the only aanpillai thunai) set off in another direction to find help.

Just then a police patrol car flashing lights in the opp direction was spotted by the PHPI’s  who were now very scared because the cops were coming. What scarred perception we have of cops who we imagine to be as evil as thugs! But the cops pulled over and 2 of them came to us and said that the ACP was in the other vehicle and thought we may need help (so sweet!)

Having said this they gave us the wrench from their own vehicle and got the lad who had by then returned to change the tyre. In India where we have learnt never to rely on govt machinery esp cops who are painted in such a bad light by films, it was enlightening to know the happy reality. SO folks dont ever worry abt getting stranded on ECR, patrolling cops come to the rescue. I have often driven alone to Dakshin Chitra late at night for some of my shows. I was never afraid but now I am also assured.

Vaazhga Chennai cops!

Two more mini-dramas witnessed on the way back home:

1) On Nungambakkam High Road we came across a well dressed man standing resolutely in the middle of the road and very annoyingly so. Just as we were wondering if the man was drunk or unhinged, we spotted a young girl hurrying across the road to persuade him to come away. Seemed straight out of a corny Tamil movie love scene – If you dont say ‘I Love You’ I will come under a car and give up my life! But did it have to be my car? Movie writers please project this prop’s state of mind too!

2) At the Chetpet signal – A very ‘Engal annan’ Vijaykanth lookalike got off from his maruti car and started slapping a young boy on a scooty. What possibly could have that rather paavam looking lad done? Over taking on the left? Eve teasing annan’s wife or sister? I dunno.

But certainly both incidents were very filmi!

Getting Older and Hopefully Wiser

Somehow it didnt hit me when I turned 40 ( a milestone, I thought) that I am middle aged. Towards my 42nd birthday which was a few days ago the thought of being middle aged and how it is supposed to feel has been a lot on mind.

So how do I feel?

I likee it. Am feeling in control. Goes with a lot of responsibilities and decision making. Young child & Old parents needing me. Life is going very very fast.

When I was 11, I wanted to be 18. that was the magic age. After 18 it kind of didnt matter. Hitting the 30s was Ok too. Now mid 40s doesnt seem bad either. I never ever wish I could be younger. A lot of people wish they could relive their childhood. Not me. Too much home work & exams! Not enough power:D Youth is not so attractive too. It is a stage of indecision, self consciousness, vague self awareness and worries about future!

Now on the department of looks. Wanting to be thin is no more important. But fitness is in. Dont want no diabetes or BP problems or joint aches! I do have a monthly need to visit the beauty salon to make the dark parts whiter & the white parts darker 😀 Like to shake that off too… But I get a good relaxing snooze there which I look forward to.

Old age now is a very unattractive proposition. Would ideally like to pop off and move onto the next plane of existence or non existence by the age of 60 as soon as dependencies on me shrink.

Till then I would like to have a good time laughing, joking, thinking, creating, helping, moving and not much crying…

Chronicles of a Little Voice

The little voice, the inner voice – intution, conscience – call it what you may. I want to pay more attention to it. It is very very subtle and felt in a very non sensory way. A kind of pull in the region of the heart if I have to locate it physically. By chronciling it here, I hope to record its presence and be more tuned to it. Now my inner voice let me name it – little shree or Lils, is saying better do this in a sustained way not like many of your other ideas. Like this blog – have you been updating it regularly?

Oh my! is Lils going to be a scolding voice – I don’t think so, she does pull so very gently so imperceptibly that I lose her sometimes.  Which is exactly what I don’t want to do. I think it may be an interesting exercise in self examination.

So I think I will record what Lils says on at least a daily basis – the more stronger messages. Maybe in time if my experiment gathers momentum, she will be more vocal as I tune in better!

Tuesday May 26, 2009

Lils woke me up at 4 am like every morning. But I had my alarm set for 4.30 and decided to put Lils on snooze and then the alarm for every 10 minutes and I finally woke only at 6 which made me rush through my chores. I couldn’t exercise or do pranayama as Lils & I have been wishing!

Listening to Lils makes my life better. For instance, waking up very early is difficult at that moment only. After that it is just fine. I have more time, energy and enthusiasm for the rest of the day. 4 am is my bio alarm clock. Maybe I should synch my mechanical alarm to my body alarm.

Election Tomorrow!

Big dilemma whom to vote for? Today’s jokers or tomorrow’s? A partyless democracy seems the best bet! Read on for more gyan:

DEMOCRACY IN PERIL; DEFEND IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT

Democracy, as is being practiced by the political parties in India, is
in tatters.

There are over one thousand groups registered with the Election
Commission. Two dozen are active and most of them are regional
parties. Even the National parties have limited influence in different
States. They have to depend on the support of the regional parties to
form governments at the Centre and the States resulting in coalition
governments that have inbuilt instability. Regional pressures and
narrow chauvinistic approach to national problems not
only impede progress but also defeat the very objective stated in the
Preamble.of our Constitution.

Elections are held regularly and managed by the Election Commission
rather efficiently, but increasingly the process of holding elections
has become costlier and marred by violence and malpractices.
Only the political parties who are in command of money and muscle
power could field enough number of candidates and hope to win and
capture power.

The candidates are chosen not for their integrity or dedication to
democracy but for their personal loyalty to the leadership and ability
to create vote banks and bring in money to their party by any means.
As a result criminals are dominating the major political groups.

Without drastic reforms our democracy will turn into mobocracy
especially when no progress is made towards securing the citizens
social justice and equality.

In a true democracy the will of the people should
prevail over the will of a few despots who rule by inheritance or by
a sham democratic system.

Reforms should begin with total change of our polity. India should be
constituted into a Gandhian Republic based on the Gandhian concept
of partyless democracy.

Your vote will usher in the desired change. Exercise your right to vote without fail. Vote for Good Governance by choosing a good candidate outside the political parties long entrenched in vested interest.

Swachid K. Rangan, President, People’s Alliance for Good Governance.
Phone: 044 6591 7571 e-mail: pagg482@gmail.com

(More on Gandhian Concept of partyless democracy: http://www.swachid.com/gandhianthoughts

Beautiful Thought…

உனக்கு டாமில் தெரியுமா?

Interacting with a group of  children from upmarket Chennai, I asked them what their mother tongue was. They blinked. So I asked them what language they spoke at home. Without batting an eyelid, they all said ‘English’.

Agreed, English is the global empowerment language. Schools discourage children from speaking anything but English in their campus;  non english speaking families are berated for talking to their kids in the vernacular. The urban and rural poor who want their children to be upwardly mobile crave English education at great costs. English learning gets you jobs.  All that is fine. But does that mean that children should forget their state language?

I deliberately chose Hindi over Tamizh as the 2nd language for my daughter because I did not want her to hate Tamizh which is our mother tongue! I am full of  guilt that I was being unfair to Hindi, because she certainly hates that language now after 5 years of incomprehension. Teaching of language in schools are uninspiring even hateful. Children really end up hating the language.

As a copy editor I find that the quality of writing in the English language is not too great either among the general youth population.  Of course those who educate themselves with out-of-curriculum reading are exceptions. Raw copy is almost entirely rewritten to be readable.

Forget about the ‘now’ generation. Even my peers and I, at best speak Tamizh and think in English. Most of us can’t read or write Tamizh. My friend the son of a renowned late Tamizh writer  is a talented writer himself. But can’t read or write Tamizh. He rues that failing and that he is missing out on so much literary richness. He is among the majority of us who have the right sensibility, cultural context but cannot contribute to vernacular literature becuase we never learnt our own language!

In Chennai there is a great theatre activity – but a huge dichotomy between Tamizh and English theatre. The productions and the audience. There should be an intelligent integration!

So why did we miss out and what are our children missing by not learning? They do not have a command over any language. Then how will they express, communicate?

You can see I am building a case for inspiring a love for learning languages – as many as possible! Learn English. Learn your mother tongue. Learn Hindi. Sanskrit. Other Indian languages. Foreign languages. In that order.

Learning need not be a chore. It can be great fun! Kids love speaking in ‘P’ language. Wh-Pat aP-are you-Pu do-Pu-iPing? Can we make language learning fun?

I am trying to initiate language learning as a multi lingual effort, for now – English-Tamizh-Hindi. In my earlier job at Goodbooks Bookstore we had a ‘Language mazaa’ club. I would like to expand that to a forum where children and adults can communicate and learn languages through theatre, songs, stories and puzzles.  Its not going to get you the first rank in class or a Padmashree or even a Kalaimamani 😉 But it will certainly be fun and expand your horizon – open your mind to great literature and varied culture.

I hope there are like minded people out there and I am able to see this through. I hope my poo kaari’s kid and my daughter will be friends who share  books, films and languages!

Latest on BBCC

And the script brewed and brewed and we are now close to the summer break. In the past sessions we had sessions on puppets, art, dance, music, rythm, script reading, voice modulation, role playing…

New in the group are a bunch of talented kids from a few Government schools in Chennai. I discovered this pool of talent at a AID India – Nalandaway story telling competition judging session. Though I am against ‘competitions’ in principle, this effort was really valuable because many kids from rural Tamil Nadu were ‘discovered’ and they have had a chance to explore their own potential which would have not been possible otherwise. Can you imagine for many of these children this was the first visit outside their village leave alone their district or the big metro – Chennai! But I swear these kids are far more talented than city kids who are probably jaded and over exposed. The village kids have that spark of creativity that can come only with limited resources.

Here are some pics from our medley session –

Its hard to find sad songs so we chanted rhymes

Chemicals Dance

Chemicals dance

Spiral beyond control

Hit zenith and nadir

Create marvels

and violence.

Plunging deep

into numbing darkness

thoughts of suicide.

Heaven and Hell are here.