SAST Wingees

Comments (22)

The Choices We Make

Several years ago, while I was on a vacation in India, an incident happened that is now permanently etched in my brain. I can still visualize the scene, the noise, the smell, the heat and the crowds amidst which this incident happened.

In Chennai, whenever I travel alone to visit a friend or go to a temple, I ride the city bus. Though I used to drive in Chennai, numerous one-ways and the bustling traffic scares me nowadays. So I prefer my trusted companion of olden days, the city bus. As usual, it was crowded and I was standing inside. Suddenly someone in the front recognized me and shouted, “Hi! MD, how are you da?” There, a few feet in the front of the bus, was my friend who had studied with me from 6th to 10th at the public school in Mylapore. He was one of the “cool dudes” of that time; Kabadi champ, track and field champ and the leader our school scouts team. I used to envy him when he got to ride the famous Kapaleeswarar Koil Float (Theppam) on all the festival days since he was the lead scout in charge of crowd management.

I was excited to see him and I told him I was doing fine. He then asked me what I was doing and without much thought, I told him about my education, my job and my current vacation in India. Then it was my turn and I asked him what he was up to and how his life had been since school. He replied, “I am working as a peon ma, in a bank. I did not pursue much of studies. I wish I had studied like you and our other friends”. I was stupefied for a moment. My mind had unconsciously assumed that all my friends would have somehow studied and held good paying jobs. Though there is nothing demeaning being a peon, knowing his leadership and athletic skills, I expected him to be educated and working in better paying job. When I heard this from him, I did not know how to react, but somehow changed the topic into inquiring about his other best friends who he usually hung out with.

I kept thinking about this incident many times after that day. I realized the most diverse group of our friends would be our friends from our school years. Also, it is bound to be even more diverse if we studied in a public school as opposed to private schools such as DB or PSBB. At this stage in our lives, our current circle of friends converges into a homogenous group who has decent education and a good job. On the contrary, friends from our old public school would be in very different situations that we could not even imagine.

My daughter is now graduating from a public school and will soon be entering college. With my school life, college life and the years that have passed since then acting as hindsight, I can glimpse into the future of some of her friends and where their life would take them. Not everyone is choosing to enter into a four year college. Some are going to join the military at entry level. Some are going to pursue becoming a beautician or a massage therapist. Some even talk about directly starting to work as medical emergency assistant or a fire fighter. Though here in the USA such jobs are not as bad as being a peon in India, I am sure, twenty years from now, if my daughter happens to bump into some of her old friends from her school, she may have to face a similar moment. The choices we make everyday ultimately determine where we end up. I hope everyone has the capability and will to choose wisely and aim to improve their lives each day.

Comments (74)

Revelations from the Rig Veda

Prolog

Many of you know that i began researching the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) formally about 10 months ago. I am happy to say  i have made reasonable progress – my first paper (written jointly with Priya Raju & NK Sreedhar) countering FSW’s arguments is going to be published shortly. My paper on the Bangle Hypothesis has been selected for the Classical Tamil Conference set to happen in June 2010 in Coimbatore. 

Rig Veda

I had already showed how the Rig Veda couldn’t have been written by the IVC people.   Over time, I realized that the Rig Veda (RV) is a veritable treasure trove to divine the Real History of India. I started looking at who the Vedic people called as demons or enemies and any references to gods of the enemy people.

Kuyava

Interestingly, I found the term Kuyavan, who is a Dasa, who is killed by Indra. There are 6 occurrences of the Dravidian word Kuyava – RV.I.103.8, RV.I.104.3, RV.I.174.7, RV.IV.18.8, RV.VII.19.2, RV.II.1.104.3.

It turns out that,  i am the first researcher [Iravatham Mahadevan Sir has acknowledged this] to tie the RV demon Kuyava to the Dravidian word (DEDR 1762) , which means potter, obviously a very important profession for the IVC people.  Therefore, if one Dravidian person was identified as a Dasa (an enemy) by the RV people, it is likely there is more to it than meets the eye.

Alongside one of the mentions of Kuyava, there is a mention of Kuyava’s wives – Anjasi and Kulisi.  I was breaking my head on what these names could mean and i stumbled upon Kulici – a type of pot [well connected to the potter Kuyavan).  Yes, we could question how a type of pot could have become a name of Kuyava’s wife.  However, if the Vedic people could take Kuyava, the name of a profession, as a name of a person, then this is also possible, right?  Given that the term Kuyava is found in the earliest sections of the RV, the error could be due to their unfamiliarity with the Dravidians, as they may have just arrived into the Indus Region.

I haven’t yet figured out what Anjasi is? Is it also a type of pot?

Namuci

Namuci is the next demon name that got my attention. Namuci was some type of chieftain, not an ordinary enemy. Indra vanquishes him after a lot of difficulty (per the RV). After chasing several deadends, i pursued an idea Priya Raju gave me – is it connected to Padayachi, Pethachi etc. ?   The suffix achi is usually used to denote affection – ammucci, appucci, acchan (father in malayalam), or to denote respect – pethachi, padayachi.   When i looked at the etymology of ucci it struck a chord – it means head, summit etc. This means Namuci could be Nam + Ucci = where Nam = Our and Ucci = Head – in other words, Chief.

Susna Deva & Mura Deva

RV talks in a derogatory fashion about 2 native gods – Susna Deva and Mura Deva. Several scholars have translated Susna Deva to Phallic God and Mura Deva has been translated as Foolish God (because Mura is an alt. form of Muda which means foolish in Sanskrit).

I was not convinced about these translations. So i started digging into it and I found that in one of the references to Susna, RV talks about the Horn – Sringa in Sanskrit means Horn. Interestingly, Sringara in Sanskrit means passion.  That the Horn is a phallic symbol is quite obvious from this. Now we all know who the Phallic God is right? – Shiva. I am not yet able to find out what is the old Dravidian name for Shiva, because Shiva seems to be from Sanskrit.

That the Muradeva could be Muruga was postulated by the Bandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI, Pune in their Annals Volume XXIV from 1943).  Again i wasn’t convinced and dug deeper. Interestingly, in one of the references to Muradeva, the RV says the god has bent neck.  If you look at Mahadevan Signs #47 & #48 [2nd sign from the right in this pic], which are thought to be symbols of Murugan, you can see the bent neck. The word Muruku in tamil has the meaning of crooked or twisted as well.

Epilog

As you can see, RV is filled with many clues as to the true nature of the peoples, the Vedic people conquered/merged with/assimilated – whatever is your favorite term.  What do you all think? Do you agree with me?  Do you have any thoughts/ideas that can help me?

Disclaimer – many of what i have said here needs to be taken as a hypothesis and not as a scientific proof. As in the Bangle Hypothesis, which i converted into a scientific 5 page paper, i will be converting this post also into a scientific paper.

Comments (94)

Career Advice – Don’t ever become a typist and struggle like me

Updated 6 Apr 2010 – My nephew, with who i had the discussion mentioned in this post has commented.

Updated 29 Mar 2010 –  RK has written a nice rejoinder to this post on his blog. Please check it out.

Prolog

Recently, i was talking to a nephew of mine, who is studying to be an engineer,  about career choices and he was saying how he didn’t like programming and was going to stay far away from it. I didn’t think he was making the correct decisions, and i wanted to tell him a story and a lesson from my own life.

Never become a typist

As a middle class family man, my father worked extremely hard to put food on the table and to get us educated at decent institutions.  When the money was tight, aside from his regular government job, he would go out and do job typing and earn something like Rs. 0.50 per page or something like that (this is 30+ years back, don’t remember very clearly).  Obviously, a lot of back breaking work.

One day, he told me, Son, “you should never become a typist and struggle the way i do”. I would have been a 10 year old at the time he told me this.

Now i took that as the gospel truth. I have developed such a deep-rooted prejudice that i am yet to even step into a typewriting training institute.  Believe it or not, every time, i pass by a typewriting training school, the image of my father advising me comes into my mind and i don’t enter the school.

I learnt programming in the 1st year of my college and i entered the software industry soon after i finished college. I have worked in it since then for nearly 22 years now. But i am still to learn typewriting formally. I can type at a pretty good speed thanks to the donkey’s  years spent using the QWERTY keyboard.

Had i learnt typewriting formally, it would definitely have helped me with my job. The thing is, i completely misunderstood my father. He only asked that i don’t become a typist as a career choice. He never said i shouldn’t learn typewriting at all.

Programming is also a Tool

Through this story, I told my nephew that, had i thought of Typewriting as a tool and not as a career choice, i wouldn’t have made the mistake.

I told him – “In the same way, programming is a tool. There is no job on the planet that doesn’t use computers or information technology in general in some way shape or form. So, no matter what career you end up in, learning programming/computers would help you in your career.”

He seemed to understand and agree with me. Hope he will follow through and not treat Programming with the same prejudice i treated Typewriting.

Epilog

What did you think of my advice? Do you all have similar types of ill-founded prejudices in your life or am i the only one? Please chime in with your comments.

Comments (37)

Anglos in the wind: The dance of a beautiful people

It was a pleasant surprise when my friend from school days Richard invited my family and myself to ‘The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance’ at the St. Bede’s School Grounds on Saturday, the 9th January 2010. This dance was the culmination of a 2-day long hockey tournament of Anglo-Indian teams from all over the country.

I was not surprised that a dance would signal the end of the tournament because in all Anglo-Indian social occasions, dance plays a very crucial role. Whether it is a wedding or a community event or a party, great importance is given to the ball-dance, to the presence of an orchestra and the ambience of the dance floor. This expression of community spirit through dance is but a small fraction of the larger sense of gaiety, camaraderie and joyfulness that the Anglo-Indian community stands for – they are a colorful and proud people who trace their traditions to hundreds of years of the interaction between European and Indian civilizations.

My first interaction with Anglo-Indians was through my primary school teachers most of whom were Anglo-Indian women: the images of Mrs. Grant, Ms. Tina, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Devotta can never be forgotten for their dedication to the children whom they had under their care. One of the myths that is propagated about Anglo-Indians is that they are more European than Indian. Many have missed out the hyphenated identity “Anglo(-)Indian.” As a result of a lack of acceptance in mainstream Indian society and appropriate employment opportunities, there has been a mass migration of Anglo-Indians to places as far as Australia, Canada, England and the USA.

The history of the Anglo-Indian community is a testimony to the struggle of a sub-minority within India’s evolution as a post-colonial nation-state [Article 366(2) : Constitution of India]. While it is true that the earliest Anglo-Indian families were the by product of relationships between Europeans and Indians, the community has come a long way since. It is characteristically Indian in several ways while retaining some cultural traditions of yore. Most Anglo-Indian communities, it is famously known, lived near railway cantonments where many of them worked as engine drivers.

Again, sports like hockey, football etc had good Anglo-Indian representation. In many ways, Anglo-Indians were the backbone of the Indian educational system in the form of committed and strong educationists and teachers.

The Indian Constitution guarantees their right to retain English as their medium of instruction. Further, both the Lok Sabha and the State assemblies have place for nominated seats for the Anglos [Article 334]. With a dwindling population (almost like the Parsis), the Anglo-Indians struggle to retain their firmament in Indian society and not get completely marginalized or non-existent. A remarkable feature about the Anglo-Indians is their open-mindedness as a people, one dimension being several inter-marriages with other castes and communities in Indian society. Among the most famous Anglo-Indians of post-independent India was Frank Anthony, a Supreme Court lawyer (also a member of the Constituent Assembly) who represented Mrs. Indira Gandhi during most of her trials and tribulations. Other prominent Anglos on the national scene were/are A.E.T. Barrow (educationist and brain behind the ICSE board of education), Lt. Gen Henderson-Brook (who prepared a classified report on the Oct-Nov 1962 debacle), Roger Binny (cricketer), Diana Hayden (former Miss India), Leslie Claudius (hockey legend) and Ruskin Bond(writer).

Anglos in the wind is the name of a magazine edited by Harry MacLure whoalso led the organizational effort of the Hockey event. Being in the midst of the Anglos at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance was a poignant experience.

Not only were there representatives of the community from places overseas mentioned above, there were Anglo-Indians from all over India at the dance, as it was an extension of the tournament. Many would have heard of the ‘Bow Barracks’ of Kolkata, an Anglo-Indian synonym for a place. Nowhere else have I seen the aged 50/60 and above take to the dance floor with such an enthusiasm and sustain it over long hours. Young and old were at it into the wee hours of the night.

Wishing that the moments with the Anglos on a Chennai Saturday night would last longer, not to miss their love of dance, I was reminded of the album Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gees (1977). The following lines from that album were evocative:
“Here I am
Prayin’ for this moment to last
Livin’ on the music so fine
Born on the Wind
Making it mine “

What I was grateful to Richard for inviting me to the Grand Dance was that it gave me an opportunity to join one segment of India in its celebration of the nation. This is a beautiful community and that came across at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance.

Chak De, Anglos !
– – – – –
References:

1. Frank Anthony, Britain’s Betrayal in India: The Story of the Anglo-Indian Community (Paperback, 2007);
2. Hostages to India: or The Life Story of the Anglo Indian Race : by Herbert Alick Stark
3. These are the Anglo-Indians: James Reginald Maher
4. Bow Barracks Forever is a 2004 Indian film directed by Anjan Dutt (the real life story of a tiny but resolute Anglo Indian community right in the heart of bustling north Kolkata)

Comments (19)

No Training Wheels

We’re pleased to introduce another writer, MD Ramesh to this Blog. He’s a former colleague & a good friend of mine for the past 15 years. In his spare time, MD moon-lights as the editor of a local Newsletter in Iowa. Please encourage him with your comments. – Sukumar.

This summer, I was teaching my six-year old son to ride a bike. We usually go to the trail by the freeway near where we live. Last year, he rode with two training wheels and this year, before the school started, he asked me to take out one of them. Hmm! I thought he is becoming brave. Whenever we go biking, I used to walk or jog behind him depending on his speed. I never had any difficulty since he never went fast and he constantly kept falling down and I had to be there to hold him. Then after the school started, may be due to peer pressure at school (!), he asked me to take off both the wheels. I obliged and took him the first day without any training wheels. He could not even move one inch without me holding the bike! I thought, “Ok, he is still young. It is going to take him a while and I had to be with him and be prepared to hold the bike and run with him”.

Teaching him reminded me of the days when I learnt to ride back home. For me, mostly my brothers and my uncle taught me to ride during the hot summer holidays in India. I learnt mostly on the streets. The streets were a lot safer then. Like these instances, lots of fond memories floated by and I failed to notice my son’s improvements. He started gaining balance and all of a sudden, he said, “Papa, please take your hands off! I will do it myself”. I took my hands off, but I still continued to jog behind him. I was afraid, and also concerned that he would lose his balance, fall off the bike and hurt himself. After a couple of sessions, he gained confidence, started pedaling faster and took off. I was no longer able to catch up (age shows when you jog!) with him and I fell behind. There he is, my son, pedaling away, on his own, without training wheels, and me, I am puffing and panting and walking faster to make sure I can see him, to make sure that he does not fall and hurt himself.

Also this summer, some of my friends are in the same shoes as myself. Their sons and daughters have grown up, completed school and are going away from home to pursue their careers, ambitions and dreams. They have taken off their “training wheels” and are pedaling away towards their future, leaving us behind. We, as parents, are concerned that they should not “loose their balance” and get hurt along the way. We want to make sure we can see them, even though they are riding just fine. We also can’t believe that our children don’t need us to baby-sit them anymore. They are excited about their newfound freedom, about the new things they are going to learn and about the new experiences they are going to have. Us, we have the same old routine of mowing, cleaning and of course our jobs.

I tried to remember the time I left home for my higher studies. It was an exciting moment for me since I was going far away and will be studying in one of the best institutions. I was looking forward to the two-day train journey and the hostel life with my own independent hostel room. I will be working on the latest computers and will have access to the latest research in my subject. Among all this excitement, I failed to realize how my parents would have felt when I took off my “training wheels” and pedaled away towards my future.

No Training Wheels was published in a local Indian Association News Letter on September 2003 by M.D. Ramesh