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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

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Cattle-Class Perspectives

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I am a progressive, am I not ?

What do you mean I am not progressive ? I am 200 % progressive. I am more progressive than even progression.

I don't consider my forefathers intelligent. I disregard my history as a bunch of lies, consider my literature as kindergarten stuff and generally consider calling anything related to Hinduism retrograde. Yes, I follow my school history book in its true spirit.

I consider Ambedkar  a freedom fighter, speak human rights when anti-socials are punished by law, keep my Tam-Brahm identity under wraps, speak ill of Patel and praise Nehru.

I even start talking in Tamil with a halting accent just to reinforce that I am not a Tam-Brahm. It is fashionable to speak Tamil with English words mixed in 80:20 proportion ( 80- English, 20 -Tamil) All 'rationalist' and hence 'progressive'  TV Channels have presenters from whom you could learn this form of Tamil.

I routinely criticize Jayalalaithaa for what ever she has or has not done, don't talk about the DMKs' misfortunes, never speak ill of EVR or Anna Durai, routinely criticize the RSS when water stops flowing in Chennai and never mention Modi in any thing even remotely related to development.

All day long I speak about the gender equality in the erstwhile Soviet Union, speak ill of Obama's policies as well as that of George Bushs' and never mention about human rights and China in the same breath. In fact I speak about China and directly jump into Beijing Olympics.

I never lose out an opportunity to criticize the RSS and the VHP once there is a bomb blast triggered by the JeM or LeT. This I do as soon as I come to know about a blast. Even before the police reveal their usual suspects, I jump the gun and criticize the right wing.

I scan through every news paper on the internet to look out for all minor skirmishes that involve a Hindu name. Let us say, there is a traffic incident involving a 'Ram Singh'. The very name suggests to me that the RSS is behind the traffic incident. Therefore I jump on that and criticize the right wing to have "engineered" this incident so that there be a chance for a communal pogrom. Thus I establish my 'secular and progressive' credentials routinely, frequently and as often as I can.

I have even subscribed to 'The Hindu' - both its paper edition as well as to its online edition just to reinforce my 'secular' credentials. I don't read the crap in the paper pertaining to religion, arts and carnatic music. ( I suspect some RSS infiltration in the paper's Arts section. Need to talk to the editor on this ).

I read and re-read the editorials and also ensure that my children recite the editorials by-heart.  Catching them young, you see ! ( My ideological commitment to "progressive" philosophy is also evident from the fact that I have named my elder child Karl and the younger one Marx. )

Karl Marx would have copied the editorials of  'The Hindu' in his "Das Capital" had he been alive today. In fact, I have framed a picture of Arundati Roy and Ram Chandra Guha in my house and never do I leave house without showing an 'Aarti' to the dieties. ( Note : The camphor is imported from China. I stick to my principles )

I don't even try to celebrate Deepavali, Ram Navami, Krishna Jayanthi or any of those 'irrational' time-wastes. I rather utilize those times in deciphering the interviews of Namboodiripad, Nayanaar, Yechuri and Karat. My celebrations are Namboodri-astami, Nayanaar-Navami, Yechuri-Jayanthi and Karat-divas.

Don't get me wrong. I of-course celebrate Christmas , Ramzaan and Budh Poornima. I have the ideological commitment, you see !

Not only do I routinely write letters to the editors of all the major news papers criticizing Mamta Banerjee but also speak ill of her on all possible occasions. But I have to confess that I have a feeling that the communists are still in power in West Bengal. I see the same sequences of incidents happening as used to happen during the times of Jyoti Basu and Buddadeb ( Let Marx pardon me for saying so ! )

I have also published my 'progressive' credentials by opposing the death penalty in India ( I don't speak about similar death penalties in China and Russia. You have my word on that ).

I have often opposed the recent arms deals with the USA to get the C-113 military transport aircrafts. Why do we need them ? Are we not a peace loving nation ? In the same breadth I have welcomed the  Russian deal to acquire MIG fighters. National security is of paramount importance, you see !

Yes, I supported the Kudankulam Reactor. How can I oppose it ? It is done with Russian help. Of course, I continue to oppose the nuclear deal with the US. How can we compromise on our sovereignty ?

Hence I am an indisputable 'progressive' and in the name of Stalin and Lenin, I declare so !

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Human Rights Guys, Where are you ?

Hello Arundati Roy, Teesta Setalwad, Ram Chanda Guha - where are you guys ?

Don't you know that human right is being violated in India?

Don't you know that convicted mass murderers are being executed as per law ?

Don't you know that the UPA govt has passed an ordinance for death to rapists ?

Don't you keep track of news items now ?

Don't these anti socials deserve any respect for their lives ?

They are being murdered mercilessly and you guys have abandoned your holy duty to safeguard them ?

Especially in Tamil Nadu history shelters and known rowdy elements that have a string of charges against them are being "encountered" or they "get killed" in gang wars. Where are you hibernating ? Are you not abandoning your right to defend these anti-socials?

The LTTE folks, the Naxal brethren and the ULFA/JKLF/JeM cadre could be next.

You guys are their only hope. Please don't leave them in the merciless hands of the Indian Judicial System that seems to take care of the ordinary citizens now-a-days.

C'mon, rise up to the occasion !

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Books

Book sale , that too library books sale  where the local library sells off its old books at a huge discount, is an event that I often watch out for not only because I could lay hands on the books at an abysmally low price  but also that those books contain a lot of history inside of themselves.

Not that I meant the history books. They could be books on any topic but having been worn out and touched and handled in all the pages, those books contain a sense of history in them. That they have provided knowledge or entertainment or academic value add or pure relaxation to those that have handled them earlier, provides a sense of great antiquity to them thus enhancing their value.

These older books have two parts of history in themselves. One is the history that the author of the book would have imparted to the book denoting the time at which he would have written. The other is the relations that the book would have had, by virtue of it being a library book, with its readers of differing age groups, ethnicity and outlook.

In a way, I think books are more secular than the authors that write them. Though they might contain non-secular content thus reflecting the author's leanings, they essentially are available for being read by people irrespective of their orientation - religious, political, philosophical , racial etc.

Not only do the books contain what they are supposed to contain - what the authors of them had aspired them to contain - but also open the ancient world of the author to the reader across many centuries. Thus when a reader opens a book he starts interacting with the author who had lived many centuries earlier than the reader. In a way I feel that the author begins to live inside his book once he sheds his mortal coil and springs into life once a reader chances upon the book in a library and begins to convey what he had wanted to convey when he was alive , physically.

But is it not strange that books become cheaper as they grow older ? Don't books acquire a sense of 'karma' as they grow old and hence should their value not increase leave alone decrease ?

And you come across some used-books across the pavements on the streets. They range from the esoteric to the ephemeral to the ethereal, covering vast areas of knowledge from fiction, to astronomy to nuclear physics to the "IBM-PC Repair Guide" kinds.

Then there are the used school books with an assortment of hieroglyphics on the different pages in various degrees of deformation with the inscriptions ( both in pen and pencil) conveying the list of owners of the book, specifying the schools and class ( with the section ) and some indecipherable scribbles that seems to signify something that is not easily understood. Then the mind wanders wild and I begin to think of what the erstwhile owner of the text book might be doing at that very moment. Would he / she have come up in life ? Would she have been an author of another book of a similar kind ? The answer doesn't seem to arrive and there is an immediate sense of melancholy that gets set.

Note to my brother : I have discounted the books that had been "gifted" to you "involuntarily" by the librarian at Neyveli and those that found their way into your over-sized shirt pockets during numerous occasions, without your knowing them as you came of the library. Those are the books that convey a different sense of "history".

Monday, February 4, 2013

Kudos !

Some things that ought to have happened long back in TN. This, finally happening in TN, that too in the Brahmin community , is a sign of progression. I welcome this whole heartedly. Kudos to Smt.Nithyashree and more so to Smt.Sowmya.

The Carnatic music world as well as Tamil Nadu are greatly indebted to you both.