Society and the Two Houses

Happened to read this today and it brought me a remembrance of a question raised in a not-so-intellectual forum, which goes like this :

Is Hindi the national language of India? if or if not, can some one quote relevant section of Indian Penal Code to back their claim?

The one who raised the question had definitely passed high-school and perhaps, was on the verge of securing a bachelors degree, if not he already had one. With the state of knowledge on the 'State' of an average person, identified as an educated, it wouldn't be fair to expect public support to a Judicial activist.

But, it has been, in history, a consistent mistake by those who (atleast think that they)belong to the Upper house of the parliamentary democracy, to expect the general public to be aligned with their lines of rationalism. So said, as a rule of thumb, there has always been some amongst the members of the upper house, who have a large public support, and vice-versa, and they are those who bring an apparent togetherness to democracy.

So, instead of the unparalleled(?) gathering of the urban youth, the IAC managed to achieve and thereby pulling media support to paralyse just the head (I should just say Hat), had they directed a mission 'Bombard with RTI', filing hundereds of RTI petitions in each office, right from a Village Panchayat to the Collectorate to the Secratariat, they could have paralysed the entire State of India without the help of the media. It is not a very unreasonable ask, for there have been buyers for a mockery of a missed call campaign, and facebook activism, there would definitely have been at least a 100, for every pincode all over India, for this. As Sri Navamani Murugan (former IAS) said, even with 10 Cabinet dissolutions in as many years, the state can continue to function efficiently, IF the administration stays unaffected.

If you can gather just 100 people, with the cost of buying 100 candles, you can very well strip your local EB fellow and choke him to get your local transformer put to order.

There is a Upper house in everybody.

On What Avani-Avittam is and is NOT!

It has been a while since I had to only 'e-live' in India, and all these years I get to see greetings like "Happy Avani Avittam". But this backdates even further, during my days in India where I get to see neighbours and relatives asking "Poonal maathiyaacha?". Don't take me wrong, but it is really depressing to be in know of facts when all around you prefer being shallow about it.

A brahmachari is not just an unwed boy with upaveetham (poonal i.e., post upanayanam). He is (assumed to be) a learner of the specific shAkai of vEdam prescribed for his gOtram; TaitrIya-shAkai of krsnayajurvEdam in my case. His vEdArambam is on his upanayanam day for the first year, and from the subsequent years, the adyayanam (learning) period starts on Pournami day of Kataka mAsam and ends on Ammavasai of Makara mAsam. There are days of Ammavasai, grahanam and some other miscelleneous occassions when the adyayanam is prohibited, within the learning period.

But in the quest to finish his quota for the year, the boy may jump the limits and continue learning a bit further than the stipulated end-date, and there may be a few lapses in-between. Before starting his term the following year, he is expected to perform upAkarma, when he chants a mantra a good number of times as a prAyaschittam for the above lapses. To perform the prAyaschitta japam, he needs to change his upaveetham, mounji and deerskin.

[During the anadyayana period (Makara Ammavasai till Kataka Pournami), the boy is expected to devote himself to learning of the vEdAngAs : sikshA, vyAkaranam, niruktam, chandas, jyotisham and kalpam]

In the sankalpam for upAkarma, the main sankalpam will be to the adyAyOtsar~jana akaraNa prAyaschitta japam and adyAyOpakarma (starting a new term), for which, the changing of upaveetham (with mounji, etc.) is an angam, an angam for which is shaving and bathing. Since the changing of upaveetham on this day has a special karma attached to it, one may choose to mark the day with it. But in general sense, asking a brahmin male, whether he has changed(see note: 4) his upaveetham, is only as good as asking if he has bathed!

To Girls : If you really have the guts, greet your male relatives and friends who have had upanayanam done : "may your Sandyavandanam be in routine without lapses for the next year". Let's see how many would actually pick up the habit, to save themselves from this (otherwise) embarrassing greet, the next year :-)

Note:

1) Performing daily sandyavandanam is a part and essential requirement of the daily learning in the adayayana and anadyayana period. Even lapses in performance of sandayavandanam is covered in the upAkarma.

2) For one who has finished learning, it becomes a duty to recite atleast one full prasna, from the learned shAkai, everyday as brahma-yagnam without fail. Due to time constriants, the (required)one full prasna may get reduced to one sUktam or one mantram, which still are accounted as lapses that are to be compensated (begged pardon for), for such sins not to hinder one's further quests in vaidIka-karma.

3) The point 1 & 2 extends to gruhastAs.

4) Upaveetham can be changed at will, any day, depending on the need. It needs to be changed everytime one has sarvAnga shave on the face and head from a barber. Also, changing may be of need if there is a special karma like homam or srAddam is performed by the kartA.

When the 31st tooth causes pain

It has been a couple of years, since I learnt to keep it to self, untill it becomes absolutely neccessary to open the mouth. By that, I have managed to save myself from the un-productive and often counter-productive arguements that I used to run into.

There was one arguement that I raised, three years back I suppose, when a person made a claim that Hindi was the mutated, simplified and modernised version of Sanskrit. I got real serious into explaining how Hindi fundamentally was different from Sanskrit, be it in the deviation in grammar, pronunciation and etymology (vyAkaraNa, swara and niruktam), and how it was far away from any original Indian language, only enjoying borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit with nothing alike in structure. I even managed to elaborate through three examples. When I got in return, this:

"You are giving examples with proper-nouns, and a proper-noun can be pronunced or spelt anyway we want to",

I was seriously taken aback. In my knowledge and understanding from the elementary level, the freedom to pronunce or spell a proper-noun was an allowance given in the grammar of English language. Since when did that become a Universal Fact ?, I wondered. I gave the above reply and withdrew myself from the scene, there. But it took me back years, quite a number of years that is.

I believe it was my 3rd class in school, and in the exam hall, I was seated next to a girl from the 1st std class. I had finished my exam well within time (as always!), and was peeping into that girl's paper. It was her Science exam, and I suppose she had a question about 'Food and clothing habits of Earlyman', and she was answering it ".... when Tom spilt milk from the Bess's bottle, Bess was very sad. She started crying ....."**.

I got really disturbed with that, and hissed to her

"nee ezhudardhu english!" and she replied "naan mattum enna tamizh'na sonnen?"

I didn't realise then, that I will live one day to see that some people just grow old and not up!

**There was a short story in English Prose on Tom and Bess, in which Tom spills Bess's milk and apologises and shares with her, milk from his bottle. It was a lesson to teach to say sorry and share your belongings with friends. :P

Definitions - 1

Education : is the one that entitles a person to own a house within a 3 mile radius of Mylapore, and that empowers him to read the morning newspaper regularly and utter the phrase "This country will never prosper" before sipping his morning filter coffee (without even having the courtesy to pour it into his mouth)

God Save Them! :-)

Perhaps the most shared video among the Tamil Speaking, yesterday

Borrowing words(not exact) from Sreekrishnan, 'Master! oru coffee: extra strong with double decoction; and hanh!... sugar konjam kammi'

Thank Goodness, I am saved!

[Note: 'Goodness' is not a name of any person. (I know! that was a bad/sad one :P)]

Musalakisalayam

In this post-modern era, when everyone is a self-proclaimed victor in any debate, it is the art of debate itself which is at dire straits. It is the logic (very often the lack of it) that hurts (rather is hurt) the most; In that, it will be amusing to observe how people manage to come up with the most inappropriate (and impossible) examples.

One of my friends, who is so fond of being the devil's advocate, often brings up a thought and asks for others' opinion on them (Simple'a solla pona.... Pesa vittu vedikka paakkardhu :P ); Recently he braught me a topic about love, and stated an example "Assume that an eighteen year old guy falls in love with a ninety year old woman" (now don't try imagining motherly, or grand motherly or platonic - he meant the popular romantic sense of it). Abstraction is indeed a worthy dimension towards understanding things, but these kind of examples run it to ridiculous limits. It is something like "assume 1=2 for the time being"; If I was to protest, the response would be "just assume - u need not accept".

Though old Indian schools had comprehensive grammar for logic, reasoning and debate, and several learnings associated with them, time and again people were coming up with arguements of the kind above. It is a popular reference in many refutations to such (worthless) arguements using one 'good old' and 'popular' example - Musalakisalayam.

Musalakisalayam literally means offspring of a metal staff (the long cylindrical rod which is used to crack paddy in a stone drum - Ollakkai kozhundhu in Tamil). "Olakkai Kozhundhu" is a word used to call someone an Idiot; but the original usage was to challenge someone who generalises a logic to inappropriate ideas. If one were to ask how an offspring of the metal staff will look like, if the response to come was that it would be like the same staff but smaller in size, then you are in deep trap, because one can never assume things which he has never known or seen. (eg. - form of a tadpole is never even close to a frog).

The same Musalakisalayam had a significant role to play in my dear Srirangam, sometime in the early 13th century when a modest cook was working in the house of a great Master. One early morning in the Master's drawing room, a few scholars were discussing some Sastra-vishayam, and our Cook was intrigued though he hardly understood a word. He managed to ask one of them - what they were discussing about. One arrogant scholar responded that they were discussing about Musalakisalayam - mocking at him that he is so illiterate. Our Cook still couldn't get the mockery, was patiently sitting by the side, listening to them; and eventually was running late for his daily errands. Since he was late in getting the meal ready, his master asked him for the reason, he told the story and his interest in learning the Musalakisalaya-Tattva. The Master was grief-stricken by the attitude of the scholars towards his servant, as he had high regards for the sincerity of his Cook. He began teaching his Cook as his prime student from that day, and our friend learnt so well that he graduated to the capacity of becoming a Jeeyar to serve Sri Ranganathan and Lord Varadarajan in the name of Vadikesari Azhagia ManavaLa Jeeyar, whose sishya parampara are still serving the Kanchi Perumal Koil Jeeyar Mutt.

Adding to this, HH VAMJ wrote a book (Vaadha granta) called "Musalakisalayam" apart from the most celebrated 12,000 padi vyakyanam for Baghawad Vishayam, Tatva deepikai and Deepaprakasa. And before I forget, the 'Master' we have just seen was none other than Sri Krishnar or popularly known as the Vyakyana Chakravarthy HH Periyavachan Pillai.

Though we are not qualified enough to read Vaadha grantas of our poorvacharyas, and not even fit to learn Tarka Sastra (art of Debate) according to the protocol, atleast we shall try to listen to the learned elders and start talking sense instead of fooling around being a Olakkai Kozhundhu.