Face, index of mind?

I couldnt go on adding weight ,awaiting the renovation of the park. After levelling the pathway ahead of the 'mela' in Pongal the corporation abandoned it to small clutch of workers ,who are working at a snails pace .Braving tear's and gnashes I started walking on the uneven path littered with sharp edged gravels.

There is a tiny temple of Ganesha under a huge Tamarind tree.It is very well tended . Small and serene.A priest performs the puja early in the morning and hurries away after locking its grill gate.As I was walking past , I saw a young boy in govt school uniform trying to push the coins towards him by means of a twig ,through the grill gate. On seeing me he turned his back, studiously ignoring me .

As I walked on I wondered whether the boy was hungry and was about to offer that child a plate of idli to be sourced from a nearby eatery when a man in his forties puffing ahead of me slackened his pace to match mine and asked 'Ma'am are you from Bangalore?'A common ploy to strike a conversation with unknown passersby.I replied 'No' and said that I live nearby .

At which he said you look so calm ! We walked and talked on .Rather he talked on .He is a upcoming film director making offbeat films.One is slated for release in 2 months time.Then he poured out his problems , the loss of several lakhs of rupees ,his films bombing in the box offices and the need to support his two college going kids and ended the monologue observing enviously that since I looked so calm my life must be made,took leave and continued his brisk walk.

Then I remembered that boy .I had crossed the niche engrossed in the monologue. I looked over my shoulder . That boy had vanished.!

I recollect reading a article in which the editor of Readers Digest had written about feeling piqued when all his attempts at conversation with a pleasant looking man seated next to him in a flight ,was ignored and was contrite, when at the end of the journey he overheard a telephonic conversation of his co passenger , that he was heading home to claim his wife's and son's bodies from a mortuary after a fatal accident.

I read this article several years earlier . Yet it is one of the few pieces of writings lodged in my memory.Is it because of the honesty of the editor in repenting at his hastiness to jump to conclusions and his shame at his selfish assumption that problems and miseries of fellow human beings must be trivial ,when compared to his!

Lopsided.

I received a call from the association of the blind to grace the Louis Braille cum Bharathiar function celebrated by the Association in the Charitable trusts premises .
When I reached the hall at 4 pm, it was overflowing with visually impaired and the dais was equally crowded with donors .

The chief guest , a litterateur was by far the best speaker . He correctly gauged that handicapped people were not to be pitied but needed to be empowered and to be infused with confidence to stand on their own legs.

Whilst snow white polyester dhotis and sparkling white shirts are the uniform of politicians , much washed yellowing hand spun dhoti and crumpled kurtas and greying beard are the uniforms of the intellectuals viz litterateurs,poets ,musicians etc . The chief guest was in the stereotyped dress code of the latter .

In this context I remember a middle class lady in her late 20's, probably a lecturer ,her hair combed into a tight bun ,wearing a hand loom sari and kumkum pasted on her forehead in the size of a one rupee coin , puffing meditatively at a cigarette whilst waiting for a bus at a bus stop in Delhi .I was on my way to my college.I found it absurd as I normally associated smoking cigarette with westernised women or those wearing western clothes,their hair cut short and with painted lips.

Probably she was making a statement . To inhale and exhale smoke is not the sole privilege of men or of women belonging to upper echelons of the society !I have seen poor tribal women squatting on railway platforms in Andra Pradesh smoking cigars without much ado and swirling calmly in its intoxication . But this woman was truly unconventional by middle class standards!

Now back to the meeting .The litterateur said that he was moved by the handsome countenance of a blind man , an excellent flautist ,whom he had come across in his life .He was full of praises for a well educated normal girl, who married that blind man on her own accord.

Unfortunately I was a mere spectator in the audience . There was a beautiful, light skinned girl sitting in the front row,as delicate and fragile as porcelain and was possessed of voice that reminded one of the tinkling sound of breaking glass and had fudgy light blue,[ vision less ] eyes. A 28 year old woman drawing a handsome salary . Yet not a single educated man or even an uneducated man has come forward to marry her.

The blind lady ,who was on the stage compering the show skillfully is a well employed pretty woman in her 30's but hasn't found and cannot hope to find a normal suitor .

The odds are heavily loaded on the side of men in India .He may be blind or handicapped but can find a normal bride .To A visually handicapped woman on the other hand it is a Herculean task to find a life partner even from her own ken!

Lopsided .

Torn page corners .

Whenever I check the little oxford dictionary for spellings whilst typing on Vidat's blog or mine ,I see certain words underlined by Vidat. Probably he looked it up whilst preparing for GREA or CAt. It is the unmistakable handiwork of Vidat because the corner of the page is torn, an act peculiar to Vidat , who tore a bit of the page of any book he happened to read and chew it . A habit since childhood .

Money' Matters'.

Apart from asking me to read aloud lessons and letters or write letters and fill up forms the blind graduates besiege me with legal queries.

One such was regarding inheritance . The favourite and most sought after legal advise is on 'Property'.

The question posed by the blind man was whether his sisters had a stake in the property of his father?There is this wide misconception in India due to ignorance of the Hindu law, that came force after Independence that only men i.e sons are entitled to the property and daughters are to be satisfied with jewels etc given during her marriage.

I told him that he , his sisters and his mother had a equal share in the property in the event of father dying intestate.

On hearing this he drew his breath back sharply and said with obvious frustration ''Chee I wish my elder sister [who was demanding a share in the pie] had a daughter .I would have married her and then there would not be any dispute regarding the property.''[ a parcel of land in his village ]

I pointed it out to him that it was due to inbreeding that genetic diseases like incurable form of blindness etc occurs and he was blessed not to pass it on to the next generation. At which he replied ''No,I would rather have the property than bother about transmission of genetic diseases'' .

Is money --' property' the rationale behind the widespread custom in South of marrying one's sister's daughter?The educated are aware of the dangers of transmitting genetic diseases through marrying within the family ,yet they throw all caution to wind and education to dustbin when the all important matter ----ownership and possession of property crops up .

Up north marrying cousins,uncles or nieces is abhorred as incest and none would dare contemplate marrying his own sister's daughter.This prohibition has been stretched to include those marrying within their Gothra.There exists a 'Sagothra act' which has removed this bar . Since the burgeoning population has made this custom irrelevant. Yet this ancient custom is followed, as I came to know recently that a village panchayat in a Northern state issued a diktat separating a married couple with a 1 year old child on learning that they belonged to the same gothra!

The greed for property is a powerful motivation to most men in India to marry .Love and companionship, takes a backseat. This takes a different avatar up north.That is dowry -- the moolah the freebies --cash,car land etc that a bride is expected to shower the bridegroom and his family.

A girl can be married off only if her parents have the capacity to pay a fat dowry to the groom . The scale of dowry ranges according to the job of the groom .The highly educated IAS officers have the highest price tag! Some dissatisfied in laws do not hesitate to burn the bride and without the slightest prick of the conscience are rearing to go and snap up a new one , who must be wealthier though.

So money 'matters' !

Religious policing.

India is a secular country. Every person is free to practise whatever religion they profess .This is a fundamental right ensured by the constitution.

Hindu's, the survivors of several invasions are a flexible people with a generosity of spirit that is unbelievable and which is in stark contrast to several other nations of the world.

The fact is that some adherents of other religions have come to regard this tolerance as a matter of right!As a bounden duty of every Hindu .By this obtuse attitude these' religious police's 'either create a fear psychosis or needle one to anger.
'
In this blogosphere also I am coming across this subtle yet menacing' religious policing'

Not a single viewer retaliated at my candid observations and criticisms of Hindu rituals. Nor was I castigated when I openly flirted with sensitive caste issues.But when I started extolling the basic tenets of Hinduism, I was nudged by innuendo's to exercise censorship, on my overt expression of the fondness of the faith I profess !

Is secularism in India only for Hindu's?The spirit behind this concept to be observed only by Hindu's at all costs?

Beach.

I decided to visit Marina beach to walk and unwind ,nearly after a year and spend time in solitude.

I inadvertently chose one of the noisiest days to do so .The auto driver smirkingly deposited me near Kalyani Nursing home secretly applauding himself in getting the better off the bargain since police men had cordoned off the road leading to Ghandhi statue. That day was the dress rehearsal to the oncoming Republic day celebrations.

I had quite a walk .The roads were sanitised and empty but for men in khaki who were spilling around. The roads were lined with columns of police vehicles.

As I neared the Ghandhi statue I saw the newly installed statue of Shivaji Ganesan .He was a great actor . The best in the whole world . Yet to place his statue in such way so as to eclipse the simple grandeur of Ghandhji seems sacrilegious.

I was assailed by the sound of a loud band and folk music blaring from stereos. Some school girls were dancing. I crossed the empty streets and walked towards the sea. Thankfully the noise of the loudspeakers couldn't be heard ,the sea being nearly 1 km inside . That wave of 2004 must have been huge to have swept upto Vivekanandar illam!

There were very few people near the water ,couples,families and fishermen mending their nets. They looked curiously at me . I remember reading a bout an 19' th century American female writer who abandoning horse drawn carriages would walk along roads and country sides to get a feel of real life , when such unchaperoned journey of a lady was unheard of.

I also remember a white woman 50 -60 or maybe 40 -50 Caucasians seem to age quickly dragging her suitcase to the lift , all alone in a hotel where my husband and I stayed at the temple town of Chidambaram, when I decided to take a break from routine life 4 years back . I wondered at her wander lust .How did she overcome the hassles of travelling alone across oceans and disembarking in a land whose culture ,and language she was totally unfamiliar with?Was this lonely journey outcome of economic Independence or was she escaping from problems and sorrows , to sort it outin solitude?I also saw her taking a boat ride in the back waters of Pitchavaram famous for its mangrove forests all by herself!

Though Chennai is a metropolitan city very few women travel on their own. [barring those who return from shops or BPO's after work late at night]Women making a solo trip to beaches , parks museums, tourist spots can be counted on the fingers. The male dominated society exempts temple visits by single woman but frowns upon other solo sojourns or is agog with curiosity .And this is 21' st century !

The waves crashed rhythmically and a small black fish was swimming and jumping horizontally. The sun sparkled into 1000's of stars on the waves and cast a mesmeric spell on me.The vastness of the ocean and the tireless motion of the waves stirred my soul . Why ? What for this parody of the puppeteer?

Then I heard the laughter of a group of young men pushing and shoving one another in the waves and taking photos .It was a reassuring sound.I see only young faces everywhere. on the road ,shops buses and on the beaches. An old civilisation populated by young blood . Fresh and new! A black butterfly with red spots flitted by . It flew just a little above the waves . I was anxious at its apparent self destructive flight and wondered whether I should catch it and release it near the greenery a good 1 km away?Had it strayed ? It looked so fragile.Then I recalled reading about Monarch butterflies that migrate 3000kms each fall from Canada its place of birth to Mexico ,its winter retreat and flies back !All that appears fragile is not really fragile and all that appears tough is not really tough .Probably it was on the right course .

I walked back to the road and it was getting hot . The rehearsal was slowly winding up .I hadn't brought my parasol and I had to walk another km to get a transportation .In the name of beautification the axe that falls is always on trees .The heat was unbearable without the shade of trees and I trudged on .

The traffic started to stream back . Apparently the rehearsal was over and I saw a private auto with words 'foundation of blind women ' painted across, stop near me and the driver politely offered to drop me at my place.He had dropped few blind girls in a nearby college and was on his way back.Paradoxically the blind came to my rescue ! Small mercies of life !The driver dropped me off at my house and accepted my tip graciously.

I am glad ....

I am glad that I am Hindu and a Indian .

With my critical bent of mind I have this incurable craving to criticise some religious practises as well as some of the social attitudes of Hindu's without restraint and with no holds barred .My naivety in calling a spade a spade and my inordinate interest in history [Tolstoy a great Russian thinker once observed Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions nobody asked them] makes me rush head long where angels fear to tread.

I derive this this courage from Hinduism itself . It promotes intellectual honesty and its history is replete with debates . Since time immemorial scholars have spoken their mind like Nachiketas Ashtavakra, Gargi, Shankara, Ramanuja and innumerable others, fearlessly . Indian society by large exhibit religious tolerance and a open mind.Our confidence in our individual belief's are so strong that we weather any criticism .[Thankfully I will not to be hounded away from my country unlike, Taslina Nasreen ,was from her's] The candid self introspection ,self analysis and self criticism without any hogwash serves only to further strengthen our fondness to our fold.

This same attitude prevails in public sphere as well .I or any one can poke fun and vent undistilled ire at our political leaders merrily without any fear of being thrown into a prison[ unlike our gigantic neighbour] .Any Indian can criticize politicians,policies of state and central govts via news papers, magazines ,or blogs. The phlegmatic politicians are verily the punching bags !A sport enjoyed by Indians next in importance only to cricket.
The Neta's, survivors of pitched battles in politics and endowed with the qualities of the fabled phoenix bird, pay scant regard to such pinpricks ,brushing them aside as Gulliver did of the darts and thrusts of Lilliputians.Their confidence in gaining power and remaining in power is ove rwhelming. With dependable vote banks cultivated carefully over the years, by bestowing largesses that they can afford to be brash and brazen it out!

Age.

When I was 20 I thought 40 year old balding men and fat women as too old to flirt or remarry or deck themselves in gaudy sarees , gaudier ornaments and garish makeup respectively.

When I became 40 I thought that 60 year old's were too old ,literally one foot in the grave and marvelled at their [some] energy to under take long trips and pilgrimages !

WhenI turned 50 I didn't feel too old although treading mother earth for a half a century !Had it been otherwise maybe I wouldn't have felt the weight of my age, from the very next day.

I saw a show on T.V the other day featuring senior citizens in which a panelist said that the current 60 year old's including herself are the 40 year old's of the previous generation.
As per her logic the current crop of youth in their 20's must be 'babe in the wood's '.Are they ?

It is undeniable that current senior citizens rich or poor are much better off than those in ancient times.Up north some were either hustled away by selfish off springs or several others voluntarily decided to spend their twilight years in forests , that were teeming with countless capricious carnivores awaiting a easy prey without having to stir a sinew. Down south in pre Sangam ages the old and infirm were callously stuffed into a 'Thazhi' [earthenware pots] and buried alive!

Reservations.

Is anybody happy with them? I learnt about caste , reservations and its implications in securing a plum job in the govt in a year of service to the visually impaired than in my entire life of 50 years!

The plebeians are practical ,outspoken and do not gloss over facts.An FC lamented that she had to wait 20 years after enrolling in the employment exchange to be appointed as a teacher in govt school.A, BC said he had to wait 5 --10 years and glowered at a MBC who pulled a long face and said that though he had registered 4 years back the SC candidate would snap up his post though registered but the year before. The SC's are also beginning to look glum .There exists a gradation within .The lowest amongst them have currently become the top beneficiaries .

I wonder is any one happy with reservations? Can human wants ,ever be satiated?

New year'sgift .....

Another New year gift came knocking through the phone.This one was from my favourite, totally blind student Rajendren who greeted me with the good news that he has been called for certificate verification to the much coveted post of a teacher in govt schools.He said that he would like to meet me in person and convey his gratitude for helping him . I asked him to come over and he said he would at 5 pm. '
Rajendren my blind companion for a year and a half at the 'Association'.I met him in January 2008 and was struck by his beauty ,colour ,height and his fluency in English.At the age of 28 he had completed B.A in English and B'ed and was waiting for the 'job'.Meanwhile he earned money by typing in braille for research scholars[vi lecturers,]weaving chairs,tutoring wealthy young blind children to write and type in braille and as a computer instructor!In off hours he was a permanent fixture in the sprawling verdant campus of the charitable institution.His attendance was regular, probably to ward off boredom and to seek company of those similarly placed .

Reeling under my grief ,I started visiting the Association quite regularly, mainly to see the smile light up on this handicapped youth on hearing my footsteps. We spent several hours under the canopy of trees , I dictating or reading from books to shore up his chances in the job market and he typing in braille or listening and often times interrupting me with questions that had nothing to do with the subject at hand He comes from the dirtiest part of the city ,sharing a hut with his parents,elder brother and that brother's wife.Yet his spirit is not cowed and I always found him smiling and making light of his disability and the station in his life and cracking a few jokes at his plight.He has a certain knack of talking to women .The list of girls [normals, partials and totals] drooling over him and literally eating out of his hands would turn any young man in a decent job turn green with envy!

Spending few hours with him listening to his unusual views and activities ,like gathering support and voting for 'Traffic Ramaswamy' a crusader against corruption,taking part in motor car racing i.e reading the map in braille and helping the driver reach a particular destination and his extending to me an invitation to dinner in a 3 star hotel -a gift voucher he had received, in trepidation, unsure of my reactions and his desire to own a piece of land, kept me diverted from my grief and made my life meaningful.

The bell rang on the dot at 5 .`He stood there smiling . He had come alone!On taking his seat he thanked me .I enquired whether he was thankful to me for helping him pass, first year M.A English.His reply'' No'' smilingly delivered but emphatic, rattled me.I had taken a lot of pains to study the course book and prepare him for the exams. I asked ''Then what are you thanking me for'' ?He replied ''For your company ,your knowledge regarding history and current affairs and in clearing some of my misconceptions'' .

I was flummoxed. All this while I was under the impression that I was helping a poor blind man to better his career prospects but to this youth my general and historical knowledge and information was more helpful!!

His smiling countenance had brought a little sunshine to my life that had suddenly become bleak and he has relished my company for being a source of knowledge and information, which he was thirsting for but couldn't quench it on his own!

Muniappan.

The blind student to whom I sent a sum of money to buy his college text books through the association. A sum sufficient enough to make me feel that I did a charitable work by helping the poor and the distressed.

Then I saw him at the premises of the Blind Association whilst reading to a blind student pursuing hisP.G.I was clearly taken aback.For I had conjured a frail, poorly dressed person but was confronted by a tall and strapping lad speaking on the mobile.I wondered whether my deed was really charitable. He seemed well fed decently clad and could afford to make calls from his mobile.

On enquiring the blind students about their financial status they said that the govt provided them free accommodation ,food, cane ,cooling glasses ,braille watches and money in form of scholarship if they pursued UG or PG courses.Some NGO's conducted regular reading classes ,gifted them mobiles,cassettes ,clothes and paid for their extra curricular activities.

These blind students hailing from the low strata of our society keep pursuing one PG course after the other since, then they are assured of monetary assistance ,till such time they are appointed by the govt as teacher's in govt schools with a handsome salary.

There fore the blind students I meet are the lucky one's unlike those who are ill informed of the governmental benifits and wander around singing and begging.

Yet my heart contracted when a visually challenged room mate of Muniappan said'' Ma'am during holidays we go off to meet our parents and relatives in our home towns or villages but Muniappan ,doesn't go any where because he has no where to go.''

This blind orphan calls me without fail on occasions like , Mother's day , Dipavali in a gruff but hesitant voice to wish me.'Festivals and occasions' when the pain of a loss is felt acutely and contrives to lift my flagging spirits.

Catechism.

One day whilst reading Carlyle's essay to Rajedran a blind student who was ostensibly preparing for the first year M.A English exams the topic veered to religion as this youth is less interested in academics and more in current affairs,general knowledge and would succeed
in diverting my attention from my self imposed sincere dispensation of social service ,by asking me provacative and loaded questions.

He asked me why should Brahmin priests chant sloka's if they don't know the meaning?Why can't your husband or my mother's Brahmin employer perform Grihapravesam and other ceremonies?

In middle class society one's caste or religious leanings are never mentioned in genteel conversations.Though it is very much in existence it is however buried under layers of urbanization,modernisation, education and economic prosperity.

Those belonging to the lower class especially the first generation graduates as is my experience with them for the past one and a half years has taught me ,have no such inhibitions. They launch a direct and frontal attack on their two favourite targets---F.C's the twice borns of yore and S.C's the current twice borns.

It is men [v.i.]who are agitated by inequalities, injustices etc. The women are satisfied in feeling the texture of my saree or lean on my shoulder to cry at the harsh attitude of their families,husbands or boy friends[ yes romance also blooms amongst the sightless] .

They[men] are furious at the Brahmins for the atrocities allegedly perpetrated by my long dead ancestors on their long dead ancestors when in reality neither of us have done or experienced it first hand.And for cornering lucrative govt jobs in the erstwhile British rule a grouse which has passed into history but still fondly harboured probably under the hypnotic tutelege of Periyar . The rituals and language viz sanskrit of Brahmins are often denigrated.

But they ie BC,OBC and MBC unemployed blind students are more furious at the S.C.as this caste is currently snapping up the cushy permanent and pensionable govt jobs enjoying a wide age relaxations and merit.First there is 2 % reservations for V.I within this reservation there are reservations on caste basis!Reservations within reservations.

Now back toRaj's question.I explained to him that to qualify as a Brahmin priest one has to study Veda's and memorise each of the thousands of verses ,a tough proposition that requires a minimum 12 years of constant practise.By being born into a Brahmin family doesn't automatically confer one the right to perfom puja's yagnas or ceremonies .It is a rigorous course which only few pursue. A true Brahmin priest knows the meaning of the sanakrit slokas.To him it is a proffession and he may not have the time to explain the meanings as he may have to service another.This class however must be distinguished from Vedic scholars who read ,and research these ancient texts thoroughly owing to their genuine interest and scholastic inclinations.

Then I asked him whether his brother who is a driver, be able to with stand the rigours of tilling the soil, read weather and seeds conditions and slip back to their original rustic tough agrarian life which is their caste's trademark after leading a soft life in the city,with ease without practise ?

His next question was why worship god in a alien language [sanskrit] and not in Tamil?

Co-incidentlywe were reading Carlyle's essays in which he observes that poets are better than philosophers and historians. Whilst the former expound moral principles and lose themselves in endless aguments the latter shows examples from the past but has no vision for the future a poet on the other hand combines the virtues of both viz- philosopher and a historian.

Then the essayist goes on to say that Dante and Shakespeare of the middle ages had such a deep insight and thirsted for the truth of things and stood so firmly behind what they deduced as truth by gleaning it from nature that in ancient times they would have been called as saints or prophets.

Vedas are poems They describe the various elements of nature in all its glory and beauty like 'Varuna'---sky 'Indra' rain and so on .They also lay stress on a universal rule or 'Rita' that governs this earth and millions of universes.They exhort one to control one's desires ,mind and thoughts by leading a truthful and righteous life and in the process attain eternal bliss.

These Vedic poets or rishis or saints have mirrored in their 3000 year old compositions the admiration and appreciation of a unsullied mind of nature and his awe at the being that has created this knowm world and several unknown worlds,galaxies and universes!

To the best of my knowledge there are no such ancient pearls of wisdom existing in any Indian language or in Tamil.
'
God is worshipped in Tamil in Vaishnavite temples .The' Nalayyra divyaprabandham' composed by Alwars or vaishnavites in chaste Tamil drawn from different castes in 7th and 8th century A.D. is sung in all Perumal[vishnu]temples every day to this day.During the month of Margazhi [december to January]a special darshan of'Srinivasa perumal'at Tirumala, of 15 minutes duration early in the morning is accorded only to such Vaishnavites who can recite all the 30 Tamil poems' Thirupavvai' of Andal .

Then he asked me will I [an MBC] be taught the Veda's ?

I replied .Yes.But you must be 8 years old I can join you in Vedapatashala but you and your immediate family must forgo meat eating smoking and drinking, perform lengthy puja's on a empty stomach from as early as 4 in the morning till noon.,discard upper clothing and perform with due dilligence all those rituals a Brahmin has to every day .I further added that if he was really interested in acquiring Vedic knowledge I would gift him cassetes and CD's that are freely available in the market and he can teach himself .He fell silent.

Jaiho'

A.R. Rehman has won two 2 Oscars and now another twins--Grammy awards for the song 'Jaiho'.

Why am I not bowled over by the 'Mozart of Madras 'bagging the coveted prizes?Is it because whenever I hear his compositions I feel that I have already heard them before . Oh yes in the original. The haunting melodies of S.D Burman and the rhythmic ,catchy and westernised music of R.D.Burman in my teens.

I am sure A.R. has heard them too as the difference between our respective age's is less than a decade.

The tune of Jaiho tumbles me into the past and brings to my mind Zeenat Aman miming her lips , synchronising it with Lata's unbelievable voice singing 'Panna ke tamana hai ke heera mujhe mil jaye' the music so admirably composed by Burman.

Had India been the toast of the world as it is now 30 years back R.D.Burman and several other music composers as well as M.S .Vishwanathan would have collected a sackful of the bounty.!

Better late than never.

Moral policing.

When I was walking regularly in a nearby park, apart from beautiful butterflies gliding by,young couples romped around looking for a cranny under the canopy and chose dark spots away from prying eyes to talk,tease ,etc .

Some bold couples undaunted by the presence of old walkers and joggers stomping around sat on the benches along the path and carried in muted tones cozy conversations or were hotly engaged in lover's tiff's.

I was amazed at the pairing.If the girl was short and dark the boy was tall and fair.If the man looked old his girl friend looked ludicrously young and vice versa.An introverted man had a bubbly companion and an effeminate boy had a tomboyish girl friend. A hefty man had a skinny girl whilst a puny man had a voluptuous female companion.I was also surprised to see girls in burkha exchanging pleasantries with their boy friends.

The pairing was in total anti thesis to my notions of a ideal of a couple.Is it a classic example of laws of attraction ' like poles repel and unlike poles attract each other.'' Or just plain truth that 'love is blind'.

Their obvious curiosity and total absorption in each other oblivious to those around them added spice to my perfunctory perambulation's of the 3/4 Km quadrangle six times, mandated by the prescription of my physician but was also piqued at their indifference to my existence.They were all so engrossed in each other that to them I could be an ant crawling by.Yet I welcomed their presence as it gilded the greenery with romance,youth , innocence and optimism and added verve to an other wise prosaic park.

One day I saw a middle aged woman a new entrant to the park hailing from a nearby tenement berating loudly and unleashing a moralistic tirade on a young couple, who stealing time from their college's or office's , to be with each other were sitting on a bench and talking to each other.She shouted at them for spoiling the decent atmosphere of the park.The couple weathered the volley quietly and the young man looked at her and through her in a unperturbed manner.After disgorging her pent up frustrations , she strode away.

On my next perambulation I found them still seated .I was thankful that they looked unconcerned .

Strange notions of decency .If youth didn't fall in love who would?Pot bellied greying men and menopausal women?

The much maligned twice born.

Up north or down south the Brahmin who belongs to the priestly caste are applauded for their scholastic merits but derided for lacking in bravery ,courage and physical prowess ,the hall mark of a man.

In Bollywood films a caricature of the Brahmin as a Panditji covering himself in saffron shawl i.e printed all over with the sacred name Ram,Ram ,running comically for cover at the slightest sign of violence or disturbance wrought by villains ,is the standard depiction,which is repeated in every film.

Down south i.e in TamilNadu the Dravidian parties don't take umbrage under films to deride this community but vent their spleen on the streets itself and show their repugnance to this minority community by squeezing them out of premier educational institutions and govt jobs by following an astronomical 70 % reservations.

The general misconception that a Brahmin will turn tail at the first sight of blood or resistance will be dispelled on turning the pages of Indian history.

When Alexander the great , invaded India in 325 BC with his sights fixed on the rich empire of the mighty Nanda's on the banks of river Ganges,he encountered a village inhabited by Brahmins who fought fiercely and bravely for several weeks to the last man to keep the invader away thus delaying and frustrating his goal.

It was the courageous efforts of Adi Shankara a Brahmin scholar and sanyasi belonging to 8 th century AD to singlehandily combat the spread of religions that derided the Veda's ,by traversing this subcontinent on foot from Kanyakumari to Kailash that succeeded in reviving Hinduism to its former glory.It was his courage and determination that induced him to take on the proponents of other religions which had the might of the state behind them ,single handily ,that the common Indian population was freed to worship their numerous deities in whatever form they wished .

Ramanuja a Brahmin scholar a century later had the courage to climb on the temple tower and proclaim the sacred mantra Narayana a closely guarded secret of the upper castes,to all castes at the pain of excommunication by his own community .He shrugged off the threat that he was surrendering his place in Vaikundam by revealing the sacred mantra by replying that he was prepared to lose his place if 1000 others could secure it.

During the height of British rule in India when they boasted that the sun never set in theBritish empire confident of their hegemony over the entire world it was the bravery f a Brahmin youth Vanchinatha Aiyer of shooting dead a tyrannical British Governor Ashe in 1911 near Madurai Railway junction and then taking his own life in preference of it being taken by the English that set in motion an unquenchable thirst for freedom amongst the youth of India.

continuation of India is shining

Then jobs could be got only out of influence and there was vast unemployment, the popular film song then was' B.A paddikaran bencha thodaikaran'.Merit was reserved only for I.A.S.But now to get admission to L,.K.G.itself requires merit.Jobs are in plenty and are acquired solely on basis of merit .Unemployment and its attendant youth unrest has become a thing of the past.All the young people are working hard and partying harder!

Then only the middle class sent their children to English medium convent schools.Now the lower middle class and the urban poor make it a point to send their children to English medium schools and tuition's . It is their to dream to make their wards employable in the scores of retail shops,I.T firms ,banks ,Insurance,mobile, T.V companies , garment factories,motor vehicles company .....the list is endless that have bloomed in profusion all over India.

Then there were very few schools and colleges.Now there are schools in every street corner[ of cities] and the monopoly of the Guindy Engineering college has been swept away by the emergence of 100's of Pvt Engineering colleges all over this state as well as in neighbouring states

Then ,it was buy once and use it forever culture.If a pen was bought to write in middle school it was preserved up to college.Only the nib was changed and a ink pot served the entire family the whole month.Now there are pens and pens.Available so cheaply at 2 Rs ,in every shop that it used and then thrown away.Now it is use and throw culture !

Computer known to a new born baby now was unheard of in my generation. It just didn't exist in India then .We who helped our children in their home work had to eat humble pie and learn the complicated procedures [to us] like start .click ,mail etc etc ...from them and got ticked off for not being quick enough !!

The milk man and paper boy who used to deliver their wares on foot or by cycles now come thudding on mopeds and motor bikes .

We lived by the adage 'News will reach us but it takes time to travel' .Now any one in any part of the world can be contacted within seconds from our living rooms!News is travelling faster than light!

Yes there are job oppurtunities like never before,millions of motorbikes,mobile's,variety of consumer goods,100's of T.V channels,1000's of shops are stacked with clothes that cater to the taste and needs of richest to the poorest sections of our society.

A good life is increasingly within the grasp of millions. India is shining!

India is shining.

My son in his younger days asked me ,innocently whether we had lights in our childhood days when I sighed at my lack of computer knowledge.This question sent me into peals of laughter .To him then, I was a' oldie' whom he conjured up to be a primitive cave dweller in my youth.

Our generation was backward in comparison to the current one but not that backward.Electric bulb was in vogue even 80 years back at the time of my fathers youth, though lightening a single room .
Yes there is a tremendous change and difference in the living conditions of the present generation when compared to mine.

The present youth takes a mobile phone for granted. Even the lowly rag picker has one and I remember that in my youth my friends flocked to my house requesting to speak to their relatives over the phone which we were lucky to have only because the government provided my father for working for them.I often had to carry messages coming over the phone to my friends and neighbours.And on getting married we had to wait for 10 long years to get the much coveted BSNL land line [the only connection available]after registration.Now the connection to a mobile phone is provided' hey presto' in a matter of few seconds!

The roads that are clogged with motor bikes is amazing to my eye's that has seen only a few Vespa's and Lambretta's strutting proudly on the streets as a well deserved trophy after years of waiting in a long queue of applicants and ultimately succeeding in acquiring them much to the chagrin of those who didn't.

The only soaps known to us were Lifebuoy and Hamam.Clinic and gleam were the only brands of shampoo available which was a luxury to the middle class as it came in huge quantities[minimum 1 litre] and was highly priced .Now there is an array of soaps that are cheap and good and shampoo sachets of Re1 hang in glittering rows upon rows in every and any petty shop dotting the cities as well as villages.The age old shikai has been given a silent burial .

If a relative returned from U.S or paid us a visit they were sure to be mobbed by a bunch of relatives clamouring their share of nylex sarees ,perfumes and electronic devices which was then flaunted in social circles proudly as 'phoren' goods.Now every street corner has shops burgeoning with polyester sarees , ready made clothes [the once indespinsible tailor has now shifted to garment factories],cosmetics and innumerable gadgets.

Barring a minuscule upper class , the entire population of India wore much washed and frayed cotton clothes and the poor looked like beggars.Now I see a reversal of sorts .The entry of polyester has in one wave of the wand has clothed the poor,low and middle class with durable,decent and easily affordable clothes and with plenty of detergents available they are clean.Now a days cotton has become a luxury to be patrinized only by middle class who have started flaunting the crisp cottons in their social circles !

In our times the dhobhi rendered a invaluable service in washing dirty clothes .Now thanks to the entry of washing machines in droves, house wives have become dhobhis and the dhobhi side lined to merely ironing clothes .

In our younger days the only channel on t.v . was Doordarshan and only programme worth seeing was Chitrahar.Of course even in our circles only a few could afford to buy a t.v and those who couldn't posses one were allowed to see the popular programe Chitrahar.Every friday the drawing rooms then resembled mini cinema halls.We were wonder struck to hear about the multitude of channels in Western countries beaming films etc 24 hours aday whilst our T.V could barely manage 4 hours of transmission.

Now every household a tv has become a permanent fixture .A house or hut in a village may not have toilet facilities and have only mud flooring but a TV will be reclining on a stool majestically in a prominent place.There are so many channels 24 hours a day at the press of the button in the remote that all this choice is so confusing that I long for my good old Doordarshan days.

to be contd..............

Sari .

A 6 yards long cloth draped over a innskirt and blouse by meticulously pleating it and securing it with safety pins at the waist and the shoulder.Even when the mercury touches 45 c we Indian women cover ourselves with this unnaturally long piece of clothing and the current poor of India drape themselves in 6 yards of polyester which is as good or as hot as wearing a sweater , in a desert.

Our sisters across South East Asia have long since abandoned their traditional dresses like the Kimono etc in favour of Western dresses.A sizable population of N.E India have taken to wearing maxi,pants ,and top,.

But here we stick to our sari dearly. It takes a lot of time to drape it ,makes one self conscious,i.e. parts of the body gets exposed if the pallu is not monitored every second,doesn't dry quickly in rainy seasons and is as hot as inside a oven during hot summers.

Why do we cling to this cumbersome dress?Is it to establish our Indian identity fiercely at all cost?It is not only Hindu's ,Christians, Parsi's, Jains but also Muslim ladies of India and as well as Bangladesh who refuse to abandon the sari and don gharara's or sharara's.

In the generation next to mine there is a sea of change.The dress once considered as the dress of Punjabi's is worn by girls all over India even in the remotest hamlets of Southern India.Churidhar kurta has become a national uniform second in importance only to the sari.

For the past 20 years India has been swept by Churidhar Revolution.Yet the sari refuses to surrender.It is mandatory [unwritten code] that the bride must wear a sari [ no gowns not yet] shimmering with zari .It is so rich and expensive that it can be worn only on occasions.

In rural India and in small towns and in pockets of middle class households in cities and in lower income tenements however sari is the only attire of women.The laxity shown in allowing girls to wear churidhar is only up to the day of their marriage thence forward it is only sari and sari all the way.

Ghandhji's emphasis that every Indian should wear only 'hand loom clothes has curried favour by millions of Indian women though abandoned by men ,not because Ghandhiji exhorted us to do so but because we women are all crazy after handwoven Kanchipuram or Benares's silks which even the poorest of the poor will somehow or the other acquire it for her marriage.

The poor Indian woman may have abandoned home spun cottons for more durable and cheaper polyester Saree's but the middle class women and some higher class women take pride in wearing the comfortable cotton Saree's fresh from the looms of Bengal ,Orissa, Venkatagiri or Madurai.

Will we ever abandon the figure hugging chiffon's,and Georgette's,the heavy and dignified Kancheepuram silks and crepes or crisp cottons,the glittering Benarasi brocade Sarees or the poor cousin polyester Saree's?Maybe 50 years hence the entire population might switch over to pants and tops.But I am sure that the at least one sari ,lovingly bought and cherished dearly will occupy the pride of place in every Indian women's cupboard.

Thus the sari is very much sought after not only by the simple folk as their daily attire but as well as the soignee's to bewitch the on lookers in soiree's.