Spell-bound II

In the first installment of the list of creative spellings, i had furnished some examples of words (mis)spelt creatively. Here is another list of some more gems – amusing neologism - in the series. This is a new way of neology- introduction of new words!

As observed in the first list, small roadside eateries are veterans in this area. ‘Rice & Fish Carry’, ‘Bread & Hamlet Sand Wiches’, ‘Silly Chicken’, ‘Pride Rice’, ‘Fresh Muchrooms’, ‘Fresh Garbage & Carat from Ooty’, ‘Ice Scream’, ‘Col Drinks’, ‘Diary Products’, and ‘Chicken Thai Roast’ (chicken thigh roast), are some more bloomers in the series.

As seen earlier, messages painted on the rear of trucks are another source of such amusing mutilations. The very strange Family Planning message ‘We two, our won’ is one more example. The message on another lorry was 'Use Diaper At Night'! The signboard on a highway informs, ‘Petrol Bump Ahead’ -- there was actually a bump in the form of a speed breaker a few meters away! An Electricity Board’s transformer sports a prominent red alert, ‘DANCER’. The venue of meeting of a Lions Club has a signboard near the entrance saying ‘Loins Club’! Another signboard informs the reader about the presence of a ‘Shopping Maul’! The advertisement of a newly opened Marriage Hall informs ‘Cheating Capacity – 200 Persons’. A public convenience is labeled ‘TOLET’. Some days ago, I had seen that on a board painted with the words 'TO LET’, the letter ’I’ had been scratched by hand to make it ‘TOILET’!

A gym has a signboard saying ‘Atlas Buddy Building Gym’. A banner once wished ‘A Marry Christmas’ to its readers. A self-proclaimed English-Teaching Institute carries a sign ‘Learn English in 60 Hovers’. A sign at a traffic intersection reads : Obey traffic rools. !!!

Printer’s devil also contributes a lot to this. A newspaper, carrying news about honouring an Army General referred to him as, ‘Battle-scared General’. When the unintended but irate victim telephoned and blasted the Editor, a correction appeared in the paper the next day saying, ‘Bottle-scarred General’! Imagine the reaction of the General this time!!!

As i have said earlier, some of the messages on the rear of lorries make hilarious reading. But the message, 'Buri nazar wale, Tera muhan kala' has not forsaken politeness; 'wala' in the first part would have well-rhymed with 'kala' in the second part. Politeness has dictated the respectable 'wale'! Urdu language is known for its polite words. To ask someone to 'get out', it uses 'Tasrif le jayiye' (Take away your honour.)!

Another common message 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' on the rear of lorries is obviously meant to convey the owner's patriotism. Recently, I saw a modified, tongue-in-cheek, version of it. The message read, "Sau mein nabe beiman; phir bhi mera Bharat mahaan". :)))))) By the way, when motherland is like mother, why is it not, 'MERI Bharat Mahaan'?

I came across a new word ‘mango-man’ coined in India recently. The origin is 'Aam Aadmi’ in the series of advertisements titled ‘Aam Aadmi Ko Kya Mila?’ (What did the common man get?) released by the Congress Party prior to the General Elections of 2004. During the rule of National Democratic Alliance led by Bharatiya Janata Party from 1999 to 2004, the Economic Growth Rate was good but inflation was high (When is it not so?). The Growth Rate of Gross Domestic Product was high but prices of some items used by the common man was also high. BJP released a series of advertisements titled ‘India Shining’, highlighting its achievements. To counter this, Congress Party’s advertisements bore the title ‘Aam Aadmi Ko Kya Mila?’, highlighted the difficulties faced by the common man (‘aam aadmi’) during the NDA rule. The term has caught on and the Hindi term 'Aam Aadmi' has been literally translated to ‘Mango Man'!

We know the word ‘postpone’. Its opposite is ‘advance’, not ‘prepone’. ‘Pone’ is not an independent word to which ‘post’ or ‘pre’ can prefixed. ‘Postpone’ is a single word, not a compound word. However, nowadays, ‘prepone’ is used by many, to mean its opposite, so much so that even some dictionaries have reluctantly accepted it! Another word by common mistakes is 'normalcy' as the noun form of the adjective 'normal'. The correct word is 'normality' but purists like me apprehend that one day 'normalcy' will become the accepted word:((((

I find that the term 'one of the world's ' is used by many and even by respected newspapers in an incorrect way and in what is called in Grammar an ambiguous way. For example it is said, "India in one of the world's most populous countries." It implies that there many worlds and one wonders to ask, 'How many worlds are there?' The correct expression would be, "India is world's one of the most populous countries." Is it not better and does it not remove the ambiguity?

And now, a word about Hinglish, a hilarious combination of Hindi and English words. In this, the pride of place is occupied by what once Rajiv Gandhi said during his address at an election rally, “Hum jitenge yaa losenge….” etc. By the way, Rajiv Gandhi’s favourite reply, when anyone brought a problem to him was, “Hum dekhenge" (We will see). When the frequency of this reply increased, a listener sitting in one of the back seats once muttered in a low voice, “Humne dekha hai; hum dekh rahe hain; hum dekhte rahenge.”

TAIL PIECE

One person said to another, “I talked to her two hours after she died.” Observing the look of consternation in the eyes of the listener, the first person clarified, “I talked to her. Two hours after, she died.”

TAIL PIECE II

The title of an Odia movie made in 2012 is 'I D I O T '. The expansion of the term given below the title is: I Do Ishq Only Tumse. This strange mixture of English and Hindi words in the title of an Odia movie means in proper English is 'I Love Only You'. A theatre of the absurd?

Chavanni Chhap

Come 1^st July 2011, 25-paise coins will cease to be legal tender in India, says the official notification, issued by the Govt. of India under Sub-section 15A of the Coinage Act, 1906. That is to say, these coins cannot be used to settle any transaction. Try hard -- can you remember when you last gave a 25-paise coin to anyone to settle a transaction? 

I have kept as a memorabilia, an abandoned, TV-shaped piggy bank which I had given to my daughters, nearly four decades ago. While searching for something else I came across this box, which seemed to be a little heavy. I emptied it to make use of this idle cash. Some coins tumbled out noisily. The contents included a few old one-rupee coins, five 50-paise coins and a few 25-paise coins. I wanted to dispose these off and took them to the milk booth from where I buy milk packets. The vendor accepted the one-rupee coins and returned the others. After a lot of persuasion, he agreed to accept only four out of the five 50-paise coins but flatly refused to touch the 25-paise coins. He said that he would accept the 50-paise coins only as whole rupees and not as fractions because he would not be able to dispose of them. And 25-paise coins were a strict no-no as nobody else would accept them from him and he would be stuck with them. Even beggars nowadays do not accept anything below one rupee!

Inflation in India has forced 25-paise and 50-paise coins out of circulation much before being officially withdrawn. The inflation rate is over 10% in India while it is about 2-3% in the UK or US, which indicates price stability. That is why in the UK and the US, coins of small denominations are still in circulation. U S A does not have currency notes valued more than 100 dollars.

When India switched over to the Decimal System of money in 1957, coins with denominations of 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 paise were introduced. Before that, a rupee had 16 annas and an anna had 4 pices. Even coins of adhala (half a pice) and pahula (one third of a pice) were in circulation. I do not remember to have seen adhala or pahula, but I clearly remember having handled one-pice copper coins. They used to have holes into which we kids used to insert our little fingers!

If one can remember having seen or handled the old paisa (pice), adhala or pahula (pies), he/she is a real old-timer.

Coming to the post-decimal coins age, I have handled coins of denominations of 1, 2 and 3 paise. I remember that the first movie that I watched (in 1965) was Veer Hanuman for which I had paid Rs. 1.06! I had just finished my Pre-University Exam (equivalent to the current Plus Two exams). My elder brother gave me that money and asked me to go to Hind Cinema in Cuttack and watch the movie. During 1975-78, I was working at Etah, a District Headquarters town in UP. Once I was deputed to a place called Malawan about 20 KMs away, on the Grand Trunk Road. I was traveling up and down daily. The bus-fare was most probably Rs. 1.47 paise one way. While leaving the Bank in the evening daily, I used to take 1, 2 and 3-paise coins totalling Rs. 3, spend Rs. 2.94 for the to and fro journeys, and use the remaining 6 paise as part of other expenses!

The cost of producing coins up to 20 paise became more than their face-value and so these were gradually discontinued.

Talk of inflation takes me to the price of onions which has jumped from about Rs 12 to about Rs. 70-80. A lot of potatoes and onions were being grown at Etah. During harvest season, price of onions used be about 16 KGs a rupee (not Rs. 16 a KG!). I used to buy 8 KGs of onions for 50 paise!

Does all this sound like Grandma’s tales? It is a fact that prices have gone up multi-fold in the last years; but so have the income and standard of living. In 1972, I had joined a Govt. Class II Gazetted Officer’s post with a princely sum of Rs. 422 as my salary! And television was only in General Knowledge books!!

So will expressions like Chavanni Chhap Kanjus (penny-pinching miser) disappear along with 25-paise coins? No way. Terms like chavanni and athani are too deeply entrenched in the Indian psyche to disappear along with the original objects with which these were associated. Anna was discontinued in 1957 but expressions like Solah Anna (16 annas meaning ‘the whole’) continue. A truthful person is said to be telling '16 anna’ (whole) truth. Recently, I saw a new restaurant named 'Solah Anna Oriya Restaurant’ (Restaurant serving pure Oriya dishes).

Now there are no 1-rupee or 2-rupee notes. These were replaced by coins quite a few years ago. Some years ago, 5-rupee notes were replaced by coins and a couple of years back, 10-rupee coins were introduced.

What's next? A time when the minimum value of a transaction will be Rs. 100 does not seem to be very far away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ADDENDUM - Sept. 2011

Chavani goes; 1000 fills in

Inflation is eating away the value of money. The Govt. is phasing out or printing fewer low-denomination notes and printing more notes of higher denomination. 

In 2011-12, for the first time in India, an equal number of new notes of Rs. 1000 and Rs 500 will be printed. Due to inflation, Rs 500 note is losing its position of pre-eminence among currency notes printed by R B I.

Rs. 500 notes were introduced in 1987 and Rs. 1000 notes, in 2000. In 2011, R B I has ordered for printing 2000 million new Rs. 1000 notes. Last year, the number was 1000 million. While the order for Rs. 1000 notes has been doubled, that for Rs. 500 notes has been halved to 2000 million from 4000 million of last year.

The Rs. 100 note is still the most-printed one. Its print order this year is 6100 million against 4300 million of last year. Printing of Rs. 50 notes has been reduced to 1200 million from 2000 million of last year.

Currency notes of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 10000 were in circulation before independence but were demonetised in 1946 to curb black money. These notes were re-introduced in 1954 and were again demonetised for the same purpose in 1978. 

I remember this last occasion. I had joined my Bank in 1973 and in 1978, i was working at Etah (U P). We were asked to report details of the notes held by the Branch at that time. We were holding only one note of Rs. 1000 at that time. I do not remember what happened to that note.

Talking of printing currency notes it is interesting to know that it costs money to make -er- print money. Here is what the costs are:

Currency Note (Rs.) Printing Cost (Rs.) Production Cost as % of Face Value

5 0.48 9.6

10 0.75 7.5

20 0.95 4.75

50 1.23 2.46

100 1.44 1.44

500 2.64 0.53

1000 3.17 0.32

It is thus seen that technically speaking, printing one Rs. 1000 note costs least at Rs. 3.17 whereas printing the lowest denomination note of Rs. 5 costs the most at 48 paise a piece.

In India, notes of different denominations are of different sizes and colour-designs. Notes of higher denominations are of larger sizes. The sizes of our currency notes have been over time, been reduced to cut costs. In many countries like USA, notes of all denominations are of the same size and colour-design.

It is interesting to remember that earlier, the promise by the Governor of R B I printed on the notes read as 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ..... rupees'. This promise is legally required as the currency notes only represent money and are not actual money. The central bank of a country (in our case, R B I) promises to pay actual money (?), whenever demanded. Later, may be when the sizes of the notes were reduced, the words 'on demand' were omitted. At that time, doubts were raised by some hair-splitting legal luminaries as to whether the amount would be paid by R B I immediately. Now such doubt has been forgotten as currency notes are treated as money!

Chicken Chulbuli

The wife has just left me. Again, for the nth time. This time, for being with Daughter II. At the time of leaving, she had cooked and kept a lot of food which sustained me for a full three and a half days. Now, that stock is exhausted and i am finding it very difficult to fend for myself.

I have always found that cooking is a very boring task very unlike eating which I find is a great and enjoyable job! I find that even re-heating the food prepared and kept for me by her, is a boring and tedious job, be it using the microwave oven or the gas stove. Cooking is a trying job which tests my patience. And i do not have adequate patience to go through the long and arduous process.

Cooking is basically considered a woman’s job. Almost all girls pick up some cooking skills soon after crossing their childhood. Yet all the great chefs of almost all Star Hotels are men!

I had read about 4 bachelors staying together who tried their hand at cooking, with the help of a cookbook. They selected a recipe which they thought was the easiest. They purchased the ingredients, read the cookbook carefully again and again, and started cooking. One of them appointed himself as the Master Chef, held the book and called out the steps one by one for others to follow and do the job. After finishing the process, they sat down to enjoy the fruits of their hard labour. They did not relish it; something was missing; and everything was hard to chew. They read the cookbook once again and tried and tried to find out what exactly went wrong. They failed. At this point, the maid servant came to clean the utensils. They sought her expert opinion to find out what was wrong with their cooking. One look at the table and she burst out laughing. Everything was raw! They had followed each step of the book meticulously but had not lighted the stove! That was because the book had not mentioned one small step: light the stove!!!

About 15 years ago, when the wife was to be away for an unavoidable reason, leaving me to take care of not only my poor soul, but also of our then small daughters, I had tried to cook a dish which, I told the children, was ‘Chicken Chulbuli’. I put the pieces of chicken, a little salt, some haldi (turmeric), spices, some oil and some water in the pressure cooker and put it on the lighted stove. When I opened it after the scheduled time, I discovered that the quantity of water was much more than required, the haldi powder put by me was a little more than needed and that I had not properly stirred the mix. So the haldi had stuck at some spots in a semi-solid state on the chicken pieces. In any case, I tried to save the situation (and save my face!) by pouring out the excess water and offering it to the children as chicken soup! What they did with the yellowish liquid is another matter. And here,discretion being the better of valour, i shall also refrain from telling you about what happened to the main dish!

My forays into cooking at that time inspired Daughter II to compose a poem which was published in the ‘Creative Corner’ of The Times of India, Patna.

The poem is reproduced below:

Dad in Kitchen

Our kitchen is a kitchen, when Mom is cooking food;
But Dad in the kitchen? That doesn’t sound too good.
Yet he is there … since Mom is away;
Why did I let him enter? I repent to this day.

He won’t even let me make a sandwich with bread and jam;
“Leave all this,” he exclaims, “Think of your Board Exam."
“I can make sandwiches; you let me do this, dear;
And go back to your books, for you don’t belong here.”

In spite of his terrible dishes, he thinks he is a great cook;
“An expert cook” , he says, “who doesn’t need a cookbook!”
And when he is in charge, nothing remains the same;
Each appliance starts working, contrary to its name!

For, every edible thing sticks, to the non-stick pan;
We are left exhausted, in spite of the exhaust fan.
The toaster doesn’t toast, it evenly chars the bread;
The pressure-cooker has no pressure, the rice is hard as lead.

“For growing children like you, omelettes are good.”, he says;
But never in one piece, his omelette stays.
“Look out Dad”, I groan, “The omelette’s is in shreds, oh, no!”
“Who’s making omelettes?” he grins, “It’s scrambled eggs, you know.”

He has set a new record, for breaking glasses, I bet;
Now six different glasses, in our house, make a set.
Since Mom has been away, the house is upside down;
And the worst part is – Dad smiles while I frown.

I tried to clean up one day, the mess that he had made;
“No, just leave everything as it is”, he said.
“When Mom returns, she should feel that she has been missed, deep and true;
Seeing all this, she'll know - we're saying ‘We love you’.”

Was he right? I stood silent for a moment or two;
Pondered over his words, and felt, indeed his words were true.
So now I too help him, in messing up everything;
And patiently we wait, to hear the door-bell ring.

Some might think that we
Have gone utterly mad;
But we’re just missing Mom,
Poor old me, and my dear Dad.

- - -

No one needs to award high grades to my culinary expertise but I am sure, nobody will disagree with my way of saying, ‘Dear Wife,I missed you.’ :)))))))))))))))

Karna Veda, Kalinga War and Child Hanuman

About 10 days ago we got an opportunity to attend a semi-mass bratopnayana (thread ceremony) of boys and karna veda (piercing of ear-lobes) of girls. (Traditionally, ear-lobes of girls are pierced in their childhood, to enable them to wear ear-rings.) In all, there were 4 boys and 5 girls. The youngest boy and girl were below ten and the oldest boy and girl were in their teens.

These children and their parents, who are first cousins (our relatives), live in the USA. They decided to perform the ceremonies at one go, flew down to India did the job and dashed back after one week.

The venue was a resort in sylvan surroundings on the beach just off Puri.

There was a large colourful tent under which there was one main mandap and 4 smaller mandaps, all festively-decorated. The 4 boys were seated in their respective mandaps. Their heads were tonsured and they wore saffron-coloured loincloths like sanyasis. Seeing them, the wife commented, “They look like Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughna.” The rituals were a long-drawn affair stretching over almost the whole day. At the end, each boy, dressed like a sanyasi and wearing the sacred thread and carrying a small palm-leaf chhatri (umbrella) over his tiny head, went around soliciting bhikshya (alms).

Compared to this, the rituals for the girls were rather short and brief. In the beginning, all the 5 girls were seated on the main mandap, puja was performed and in the second phase, each girl was called to the mandap separately.

In the morning, while driving from Bhubaneswar to Puri, we crossed the river Daya. This is the historical river on the sands of which the famous Kalinga war was fought in which Ashoka vanquished the mighty Kalinga Sena. It is said that so many people were killed in it that the water of the river became red with blood and streams of blood flowed on the bed of the river. The sight of so much bloodshed completely transformed Ashoka. From Chandashoka (the violent Ashoka), he became Dharmashoka (the spiritual Ashoka). He vowed to shun violence and embraced Buddhism. The story has been beautifully picturised in the Hindi movie ‘Asoka’, with Shah Rukh Khan in the title role.

The venue was on the confluence of the river Bhargavi and Bay of Bengal. The river merges into the sea at this point. We observed that in the morning, the water of the river was flowing into the sea and in the afternoon, the reverse tides were pushing up the water of the river. I was reminded that in literature, a woman is compared to a river and a man, to the sea. Just as river-water ultimately becomes one with the sea, in the same way, it is said, a woman reaches her fullness on becoming one with her man!

We stayed overnight and early next morning, I went to the beach to watch the sunrise. As usual, it was a fascinating sight. I have always been enchanted by sunrise and sunset. Even when in my house, I watch the sunrise whenever possible. In the late afternoons, slow and progressive disappearance of the sun behind the hills and trees is particularly very attractive.

I had read in my childhood that once the child Hanuman felt attracted by the rising sun and thinking the crimson ball to be a ripe fruit, prepared himself to leap towards it and gobble it up. He could have done it easily! His mother Anjana, realizing what disaster the disappearance of the sun would cause to the Creation, dissuaded him from doing so, with great difficulty!

It was a very enjoyable trip.

TAIL PIECE

The price of onions in India has touched the sky. From the normal rate of Rs. 12 a kg, it has jumped to Rs. 70-80. Here is the reaction of Bachi Karkaria, my favourite wordsmith:

“Dish of the Day: Chicken No Pyaza”

ADDENDUM

Later I read from a source that bratopanayan is the ceremonial taking the children (both boys and girls) of all varnas to the gurukul for commencement of his/her education ( a form of the modern day school-admission). It is mentioned in Yajurveda. The process is prescribed in Manusmruti. Later, when the status of women in society was gradually belittled, the ceremony came to be performed only for boys. Still later, the ceremony was slowly diluted. With establishment of formal schools, gurukuls disappeared and bratopanayan became a formal ceremony, bereft of its original spirit and sanctity. Gradually, the ceremony became confined to brahmins and kshatriyas. It became an expensive affair. Merely to comply with the social requirement, some kshtriya families started organising it just before the marrige of the boy, to cut down the expense.

Death Shall Die

Recently, an old relative of mine, in her nineties, expired. She had a fall which caused brain hemorrhage. She was hospitalised for about 2 weeks and then breathed her last. She was cremated at Puri. The cremation area is called Swargadwar (gateway to heaven) and is adjacent to the sea. It is believed that the soul of the departed gets peace if the cremation takes place at Swargadwar.

I had accompanied the body and participated in the rites.

The cremation area is subdivided into several quadrangles and several bodies can be cremated in each quadrangle at the same time. When we reached the spot, several pyres were burning. Fresh bodies were being brought in and registered for cremation. The atmosphere makes one philosophical; it is serene and very humbling. 

When we were waiting for completion of the formalities, i looked around at the other pyres. Some were being lit, some were burning with full flames leaping towards the sky, consuming the bodies and some were almost extinguished. On a few spots only a pile of ashes remained. It reminded me of the saying 'From dust unto dust.'

One particular pyre attracted my attention. It had just been lit. A pair of feet was clearly visible from out of the pile of wood, the other parts of the body being fully covered. The feet had alta (lac-dye, a red-coloured liquid applied by women and girls on their feet as a beauty-aid) neatly applied on them. Alta is worn by married women whose husbands are alive, as well as by unmarried girls. Hindu custom does not permit widows to apply alta on their feet or vermilion on the parting of their hair. When a woman dies during the life-time of her husband, her body, before being taken out for cremation, is dressed up just like a bride, in a colourful new saree, new glass bangles, alta, vermilion and all other accessories used by women whose husbands are alive. Thus, it was evident that this lady was a ‘suhagin’, a ‘sadhaba’ (a woman whose husband is there). In olden days, women yearned to die as suhagin and not as widows. When a married women bows before an elder, the latter would bless her, “Sada suhagin raho” (Remain ever a Suhagin), "Let you wear vermilion in your gray hair." and “Let your bangles be like vajra (the strong and unbreakable weapon of Lord Indra).” The allusion is to the custom of breaking the glass bangles of a woman on the death of her husband. By custom, widows do not wear glass bangles. In earlier times, a woman who died during the life-time of her husband, was considered lucky. This was because the condition of widows was miserable and their social status was low. Even now widows are not permitted to participate in certain auspicious customs.

The alta on the feet of this body made me somber and i could not take my eyes off it. It was a poignant feeling.One of my cousin-sisters loved to apply alta on her feet daily. Last year her husband expired. He was in his sixties at the time of his death. My cousin-sister no longer applies alta. Whenever i meet her, my eyes instinctively travel to her feet at first and the sight makes me sad.:((((((

I came back to my group. The son of the deceased old lady was about to lit the pyre. This is called giving mukhagni. The son, or in his absence the next member, (preferably male), of the family closest in relation to the deceased, puts agni (fire) to the mukh (face) of the body. It is believed that only when the person dearest to the deceased sets fire to face, the spirit of the deceased finally leaves the body. Setting fire to somebody’s face is the most undesirable act and when this happens, the deceased person truly gives up all attachments and his/her spirit finally leaves the body. When somebody harms another, the victim may react by saying, "Have I put fire on your face, so you are doing this to me?"

It is said that in life two things cannot be avoided; death and taxes.

Deaths occur so that life can continue. In a garden, old flowers must wilt and fall so that new flowers can bloom and take their place.

Raymond Tallis, the famous British savant-scientist in Hippocratic Oaths: Medicines and Its Discontents says, "However death is postponed and palliated - by means of medicines, public health, technology and social reforms - birth remains a one-way ticket to the grave."

Shakespeare says in Hamlet:

Though know'st 'tis common;

All lives must die;

Passing through nature to eternity.

Indian tradition looks upon Death as the greatest teacher of the secrets of life. In Kathopanishad, when Nachiketa finally meets Yama, the God of Death, the latter tries to bribe Nachiketa who seeks the supreme secret by trying to fob him off but when Nachiketa stands firm, Yama discloses the dichotomy of paths leading to shreyas and preyas, to blessedness and sensory satisfaction. Yama says: Choose what is ultimately real and not what appears to be immediately valuable.
Here is a video-representation of their conversation:

In my college days, i had read the poem ‘Death Be Not Proud’ by John Donne, which is reproduced below:

Death be not proud, some caleed thee,

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not soe,

For, those, whom thou think’st thou overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet can'st thou kill mee,

From rest and sleepe, which but thy picture bee.

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,

Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sickness dwell,

And poppie, or charmes, can make us sleepe as well.

And better than thy stroake: why swell’st thou then?

One short sleepe past, we wake eternally.

And death shall be no more; death, thou shall die.

==

(The spelling of the words is as prevailed at that time.)

Death has been called the great leveler. A king loses his power upon death; a poor man no longer remains in poverty after death. All return to dust after death.

TAIL PIECE

It was perhps Mark Twain who had said, "Rumours about my death are highly exagerrated."

In India, it is believed that if rumours about a person's death turns out to be false, it adds years to his/her life!

ADDENDUM

29.10.2011

A question arises : If if death is certain and we don't forget or ignore it, then what is the use of living? One may as well commit suicide! However, death is only one side of the coin. The other side is life is just as inevitable. So live it fully and in a worthwhile way.

New year Brings Nothing New?

WISHING ALL OF YOU A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Let 2011 bring you good health and bliss to you and your family!

Here is a related extract from The Economic Times:

"January is the month of good beginnings. This month of good resolutions is presided over by Janus, the liminal god of thresholds. A liminal or a transitional state is one in which one traverses from the old to the new, from the familiar to the unknown, even from an unconscious to the conscious state metaphysically.

………

"January can thus be looked upon as the month of possibilities, where one resolves to discard old habits to embrace new ones.

"Lord Ganesh, the god of auspicious beginnings, is a liminal deity in Indian tradition.

"Ganesh was created by his mother to guard the threshold. May he grant all your wishes in the New Year."

During College days, i had read the poem ‘New Year- 1918’ by the British poet Rose Macanllen, written against the backdrop of the disasters of the World War I. Its first line was that the New Year brings nothing new. The theme of the poem was that the world moves but does not progress.

Do you agree?

Chandipur, Love-Marriage and Plants for Garden

Last week, the wife and i visited Chandipur to attend a Marriage-Reception.

Chandipur is the place from where surface-to-surface missiles like Agni and Prithvi are test-launched by the Indian Defence Department. It is a beach on the Bay of Bengal. In the beginning, a question arose in my mind - Why is it called ‘Chandipur-on-Sea’? Similarly, there is another place called 'Gopalpur-on-Sea'. Why not simply Chandipur or Gopalpur? Puri is not called ‘Puri-on-Sea' and Kolkata is not called 'Kolkata-on-Sea'!

The venue of the reception and our accommodation was two minutes’ walk from the sea. We had arrived in the evening preceding the reception. Early morning next day, we strolled on the beach. During the previous night, the water had receded about a kilometer from the beach. I was told that many times water recedes almost 5 kilo meters. It comes back and the waves touch the beach during the day. We visited the beach again at about 10 PM. The waves were beating against the golden sand intermittently. The full winter moon was shedding its soothing light and the waves were reflecting it as an elongated and moving stretch, creating a wonderful sight. The chill of December added to the charm of the experience. I had observed a similar phenomenon on a beach in Malaysia. Why does this happen? Why does the sea recede during the night? I had taken advantage of this phenomenon at Malaysia, to collect a large and lovely coral (which otherwise remains under water at other times). The water had receded during the night exposing the corals. I collected one coral during my morning walk on the beach. I have fixed a base for it with plaster of Paris covered with varnish and the piece occupies a pride of place in my drawing room, providing us with a good conversation-piece with our visitors. (Taking away corals is not permissible in Malaysia but i had managed it :))))))

Now about the marriage. It was a love-marriage. The boy is a Hindu and the girl, a Muslim. A thought swayed my mind. Love-marriages are breaking down caste and community barriers in India. In this way, love-marriages are helping integration of Indians. We may be educated; we declare ourselves as broad-minded. We say that we do not believe in the caste-system. Yet when the time for looking for a bride or a groom for our offspring comes, we fall back on the old customs and practice. In case of arranged marriages, almost all parents look within their castes and communities and never think outside these self-imposed boundaries! Now, more and more young people are choosing their own life-partners and in many cases, they do not confine themselves to their own caste or community. (Kyonki pyar kiya nahi jata hai; pyar ho jata hai!) Definitely this is helping national integration. Maybe, in the not so distant future, as education spreads and more and more girls take up jobs, love-marriages will become the norm in India rather than the exception that they are now. I must hasten to add here that i am not entering into a debate on arranged marriages vs. love marriages.

This reminds me of a TV ad. In it, the daughter-in-law, apparently a person who preferred love-marriage, mischievously asks her loving grandmother-in-law if the latter’s was a love-marriage or an arranged one. The good old lady, responding in the same spirit of joviality, replies, “His (her husband’s) barat was at our door; I could no longer suppress my curiosity and looked down from the balcony and by coincidence, he looked up at the same time. Our eyes met. Hua na love-marriage!”

Talking of marriages, my mind travels to marriage-invitation cards. I notice that almost all the marriage-invitation cards received by me in the recent past, are in English, although i know for sure that with rare exceptions, all the invitees are locals. Then why not print the invitation cards in the local languages which will provide more natural and pleasurable reading ? Do the hosts think that the invitees cannot read the local language, or is it to show that they have arrived? To make matters worse, in many cases, there are mistakes galore in the cards printed in English which are not easy on the eyes of people who like correct and good English! If some of the invitees are from abroad or other places and do not know the local language, about 100 of the cards can be gotten printed in English without any additional cost!

Also, the legend on the welcome-arch ('Rashmi weds Ranganath') is always (you guessed it!) in English.

One more thing. Almost all the invitation cards end with Smt. So and So, and below that, Sri So and So. as the hostess and the host respectively. It is forgotten here that while it is courteous to add the Sri or Smt. to the names of the addressees, one should not add these prefixes while writing one’s own name.

After two glorious and fun-filled days, we returned home, of course, without forgetting my first love and favourite pastime; I requested for and received for my garden, generous gifts from the hostess (she is an old buddy of the wife), a few saplings, cuttings and seeds from her lovely garden, resplendent and bursting with winter colours. :))))))))))))))))

Although we were out for only 2 days, after returning we felt like we had come back from a long vacation. It is very refreshing and rejuvenating to leave one's place and go out for a few days for a change.