Kaleidoscope

This is a collection of unrelated incidents that happened in last few days, that interested or impressed me enough to take note.

Love thy neighbor ?
A friend of mine has been researching abroad for a number of years now. In the course of these academic pursuits, he has come in direct and indirect contact with a few Pakistani nationals. The deep reservation with which these neighbors hold Indians, struck my friend. It is rather strange how the strained relations between the two countries have affected the people - despite having a common origin, despite being the next-door neighbors, the people of two countries have very little understanding about each-other's culture and environment. In another continent, though they can understand the language the other speaks, which the english-speaking people cannot, they hold each other at an uncomfortable distance.

Confluence of cultures
This friend had a Persian lab-mate at some point of time. Now Persian is also the origin of Urdu, which by now, is quite integrated in the hindi language we speak in our day-to-day conversations. So, when the Persian researcher spoke at his home in his native tongue, my friend could catch quite a few words. Of course, he kept mum :-) (not wanting to embarass the other guy).
On the other hand, Kashmiri is entirely different, though I always expected it to have traces of Urdu - when a Kashmiri friend speaks his language, I cannot understand a word.
The native village of this friend is in Haryana, close to Rajasthan border. Rajasthani is frequently spoken in his village, and he understands it well despite staying in different parts of the country for most of his years. But he was surprised to hear that Rajasthani has a script as well (which incidentally is similar, but not same, as hindi devanagari script). Haryanvi is also similar to Hindi, but quite different from Rajashthani, but it has no written script. If someone is surprised to hear about the difference in languages spoken in these two neighboring states, picture this - in Rajasthan itself, there are many dialects - the language that is spoken in Bharatpur is quite different from what is used in Jaisalmer. It is truly amazing the number of languages and dialects that are spoken in our country! There is an age-old saying in hindi about our culturall diversity - 'Kos kos par badle paani, chaar kos par baani' (After every mile, the taste of the ground water changes; every four miles, the spoken dialect changes).

Visual impressions
My brother is usually careless about wearing sufficient warm clothing in the winter weather. When he saw me wearing a woollen cap, in the coldest of the weather, he expressed his agreement that woollen caps give nice, comfortable feeling. I had another one at home, so I gave it to him and he took it cheerfully. For a few days he happily roamed around in the cap. But one day when he came over, the first thing he did was to throw down the cap on the table, saying - 'I dont want your stupid cap. Keep it with yourself'. I was stunned for a moment; then he clarified - 'Whenever I come wearing this cap, the security guard of your apartment makes me sign the visitors' register'. The guards had asked him to sign his name twice, when he was wearing that cap. He had never been asked on numerous previous occasions, when he entered with car keys in one hand and mobile in other, and laptop bag on his shoulder. We had a good laugh over this episode when we imagined how would he have appeared to the guard - a not-so-elegant cap, his face hardly visible underneath, a black bag - and agreed that he definitely would have looked a pretty shady character in the night :-D
So, it is by appearance that the guards determine the dubious characters. Interesting!

Mobile revolution
Yesterday night, over dinner, my brother shared yet another story. He is a big patron of a road-side tea stall near his office. One day, the vendor asked him to suggest a mobile model for him. My brother agreed, but the geek that he is, asked his requirements. The vendor said, 'it should definitely have a color screen, and also a camera'. [This is something - road-side tea-stall-wallah with a camera phone!]. My brother told him it would cost about 4-5 K, and asked what else he needed. The vendor thought for few minutes and said it should also have a FM radio. My brother said, it would be about 7-8K. The vendor said, 'That is OK. But this time when I go to my native place, I want to have a good mobile phone'.

What does it show - Economic growth, Technology revolution, Peer pressure, Daring to Dream ??

Just for fun
In the restaurant where we were having our dinner, there was a couple, apparently recently engaged. They were waiting for some friends, whom the guy wanted to introduce to his fiancee. A little while later two guys walked in, and by way of greeting, one of them asked, 'how does the pair of us look?' He had long hair; and the other one was bald!

Bas yaadei.n rah jaati hai.n

Things I have been reading, talking about, thinking, in the last few days gave rise to the random thoughts, that gradually took the shape of this poem ...

Yaadei.n -
Jeevan ke madhur palo.n ki
Rakh leti hoo.n mai.n sahej kar
Beshkimti nidhiyo.n ki tarah
Ratnjadit, makhmali bakse mein.
Kholti hoo.n use phir kabhi
Nikaalti hai.n, nihaarti hoo.n
Un yaado.n ko.
Waqt kuch der ke liye theher jaataa hai ...
Chand lamho.n mein
Ek beeta hua yug jii kar,
Phir se samet leti hoo.n
Jawaaharaat jaise
Yaado.n ke satrangi sheeshe,
Aur rakh deti hoo.n
Man ke bakse mein
Resham kii Dorii se bandh kar.

Atiit ki kaTu smritiyaa.n
Maine kaid ki hai.n
Man ki kisii andheri kothri mei.n.
Lekin kahaaniyo.n ke
Shaitaan raakshaso.n ki tarah
Woh bediyaa.n toD aati hai.n kabhi kabhi
Kahar Dhati hai.n, dil dukhati hai.n
Sadiyo.n se lambe kuch palo.n tak.
Jab un par kaboo pa kar
Baandh kar rakh deti hoo.n
Phir se ek andhere kone mei.n.

Aur zindagi ki jadd-o-jahad
Yu.n hi chalti rahti hai ...

The pleasant memories of life -
I keep them carefully
Like precious treasures
In a bejewelled box, lined with velvet.
I open it at times,
Take out those memories
To recall and remember.
The time stops for a while ...
In those few moments
I re-live an age gone by,
And once again gather
The memories that are colorful mirrors,
Just like jewels.
And tying them with silk ribbon,
I place them back
In the box of mind.

The bitter memories of the past -
I have imprisoned them
In a dark cell in the mind.
But, they break their chains
And escape, sometimes,
Like the evil demons of fairy tales.
They wreak havoc in life,
And torment the heart
For some moments that last forever.
Until they are captured and chained,
And caged again, in a dark corner.

The struggle continues ...
The life goes on.

Hindi Literature

Hindi Literature - now, what's that ?? Almost all the bookstores I have been to in last few years, seem to be asking. It is almost depressing to see the shelf space given to books in our national language by these stores - in most cases, you will find hindi books in a single narrow shelf or two, in a corner. What is the reason of such apathy to our own mother-tongue, the language of the masses?
- Is it that people do not want to read hindi any more? I have come across people, who take pride rather than shame, in confessing that they cannot read hindi fluently - and these are people who have been taught hindi in school, and who usually converse in hindi. They have forgotten how to read their mother tongue, let alone write it. Incredulous, is it not?!
- Or, is it a dearth of good literature? This is a reason I find justifiable to some extent. I am yet to come across contemporary literature that suits my taste. This problem has two facets - the contemporary writing is not found to be up to the mark, whereas the classics seem to be totally out of context (I have devoured many novels of Premchand in my childhood, but I cannot read them now). Secondly, it does not seem to be as versatile - the genres and themes seem to be rather limited. For example, I am fond of thrillers, but all the ones in hindi seem to be cheap ones, and are definitely not researched for technincal soundness. Though I must admit that my views could be biased due to limited availability of good reading material.

Another observation I have made is the price - hindi books are available at throw-away prices. One may purchase short novels for less than 100 bucks. I saw 'Chandrakanta' available at 60 bucks, and each of 6 volumes of 'Chandrakanta Santati' at 55 - that is 390/- for 7 volumes! A point in case may be the recently published autobiography of Pervez Musharraf - the english edition costs almost thrice the hindi one (and its the same book!). Is it because the publishers are forced (by whatever forces of nature or politics or economy) to publish hindi books, so they keep the price as low as possible to enhance sales? Or are they subsidized to enhance readership? This I am not sure of.

***

Yesterday I read 'Chaudah Phere' by 'Shivani'. Although it was written almost 50 years ago, many things are still true in the context of Indian society - the unprogressive thought process of the people in small towns, the helplessness of financially and emotionally dependent women, the compulsion to continue a meaningless marriage, the stigma associated with extra-marital relationships, parent's desire to get their children married at "suitable age" preferably according to their choice and almost definitely within their community, and so on. There are incidents and thoughts that seem to be outdated, but that may be acceptable because of its setting in villages and towns in hills of Uttaranchal, and because it was written so long back.
It is a good story altogether, with bits of humor, and has a happy ending, unlike most of the stories of the same genre and era. I like haapy endings :-))

Latest From My Sketchbook

When I make a sketch, I do not take up portraits very frequently. This is one that I was making after a long time.


No ... this is not a self portrait :-))
I made this from the photograph of a lesser known actress - I am not a fan of hers; I liked the light-and-shade effect in the photo. The picture has not come out to be a good resemblence to the person, but guess away, if you like to. I might even think of giving a prize if I like any answer sufficiently ;-)

Digital Fortress

I borrowed this Dan Brown book from another colleague, to read in the vacation. Few days into the vacation, I had lost hope of being able to read it - with all the work that was going on, there was neither time, nor place, to sit down and read. After one tiring day that constituted of standing and supervising the painters and carpenters, apart of making endless cups of tea to beat the chilly weather, I read the first few pages before falling asleep. The story had me interested within these few pages, and completely gripped me by the time I read a few more. I love suspense thrillers! So, the next day I roamed about with the book in my hand, reading every minute I could snatch in-between. After the dinner, I focussed my full attention on it. I was avoiding staying up late, but I just could not go to sleep. At quarter past midnight, I finally turned the last page, before turning the light off. So, this is how I spent the new year eve :-).

This is the second Dan Brown book I read after 'Da Vinci Code'. The first one had, of course, taken the world by storm, literally. I found the pace of this one faster, though it could be because I am more familiar with the world of computers and cryptology, than I am with Christian history and mythology. The premise of the story - Uncle Sam's need to montior everything that goes around in the world - is nothing new. But the way it has been treated, the line between fact and fiction vanishes (which I found to be true of 'Da vinci Code' as well). In fact, that is what I like about my favorite english thriller writers - they do their research well. Their work of fiction are not just stories - you learn something about the way things are done in real world.

Though most of the "turn of events" could be intuitively predicted a little while before they happened, and at some places it seemed that the author deliberately tried to mislead the reader into a different direction than what was going to happen, I still liked the way the things take a turn, keeping me hooked. I like the fast pace and the battle of wits [which is why Alistair McLean is my most favorite author :-)]. I'll recommend it to all lovers of fiction, but with a word of caution - if the words like cryptography, encoding, algorithms are alien to you, the whole story may seem to have missing patches (not too many, though).

As The Crow Flies

As I mentioned some time back, I started reading this book by Archer over the holidays. At the time I wondered if I would be able to finish the book before the holidays end. As luck would have it, the next day (and the only such day during the entire week) I was freed of my duties of supervising the workmen who held household captive for the rest of the vacation. It was a bright, sunny day - ideal to laze about. So I took a chair out in the sun, and sat down to read. And by late afternoon, I was through! I manage to surprise even myself at such times - I finished the 700 page novel in three days! (though that does not compare with my 'personal best' - I finished 'Godfather' overnight :-) )

As BTR and Leziblogger advised, and as expected from my past experience with Archer, it was an interesting read. Although the story was typical of Archer - a determined struggle by the protagonist(s) from rags to riches, strewn with a lot of drama - it manages to capture your imagination very successfully. You cannot but hate the villains of the piece for their evil doings, and sympathize with the protagnists. But there were a little too many coincidences in the way the characters cross each others' paths. And I could not find how did the story justified the title (or vice-versa, if you please).

There is nothing you would miss if you haven't read this one, especially if you have come across Jeffery Archer before. But if you have time to spare, you might as well enjoy it!