The mystic rests…

The violin virtuoso Padmashri Dr. Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan is no more! This news came as a shocker to me this morning. He was known for his trademark vibhuti and red kumkum paste on his forehead and he was also popular among his fans for the numerous gimmicks he displayed amidst his concerts.

Personally, being an ardent fan of Dr. Vaidyanathan, I see this loss as one of the most irrepairable ones as there are very few promising souls who are really capable of voyaging the rich traditional musical path trodden by the maestro. A disciple of the renowned maestro Mysore T.Chowdaih, Dr. Vaidyanathan started his musical journey by showcasing his talent as an accompanying artist for the stalwarts of yester years such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Araiyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Viswanathan, Maharajapuram Santanam and the like at a very young age of 12! It was in the mid 70′s that he started performing as the main artist on stage, and there was no looking back since then. His dynamism on the concert stages earned him an enormous fanfare from all round the globe.  The very fact that his muscial albums were sold like hot cakes in Karnataka even at times when there were political tiffs between the KA and TN states itself stands testimony to his mastery in playing numerous timeless classical melodies on one of the most difficult instruments to handle – the violin!

While on a tour to Karnataka some years back, he had said: “Music is one of the most mysterious phenomenons man has ever seen. It has tremondous powers hidden in it, which can even cure a person of his terminal illness. The proof for this is my father who was bedridden, with all the family members losing out hopes of his survival. It was then that I sat with my violin playing the mighty Bhairavi raaga all through the night in front of my father. Everyone, including the doctors who treated him, were taken aback at his recovering health condition in the morning. Music has that power”. Evidently, he was also the one who firmly believed in his words and chose to arrange a concert and play only selected songs and selected raagas specially to bring rains at a time when the TN state was drought-hit; and by this, he went on to prove his stance that music is all powerful. But sadly, the biggest irony in his life was that there was none to use the same tool – the mystic music – to save him from the clutches of death when he was lying in a hospital bed suffering from multiple organ failure!

May Lord almighty provide the strength to his family, friends and fans to bear the loss.

–Peace be…

The “Explosion” – part 2

For a quick recap of what transpired in the previous part, I was talking about the population explosion – probing a little deeper into the major contributors (rural mass) and the possible causes (superstitions and incomplete teachings) for its phenomenal increase. I also mentioned about many of us – the commoners – being unaware of the reasons why some ‘days’ such as ‘World Environment Day’, ‘World Population Day’ and the like are being observed worldwide. We saw that the main purpose was to educate the masses in the respective regards.

Continuing on this one, we now need to understand what are the problems caused by the ‘exploding’ population. Only then would one realize the need for spreading awareness amongst the ignorant. So what exactly is the result of the ever-increasing magical number called ‘population’?

Mr. Ratan Tata, upon releasing his 1 lakh car to the world, said that he was inspired to build one such car so that even a person hailing from the middle class could afford it. He also admitted that he was moved by a sight where a middle class family of four was riding on a dangerously uncomfortable scooter, with the man riding it with one of his kids in front of him and his wife seated on the pillion seat with a baby in her hand. He had then resolved to make a car affordable to everyone, so that such families’ lives are not put to risk. A very noble thought, indeed. But wait; did this ring a bell somewhere in the back of your minds? Yes, indeed this act of Tata’s was strongly criticized by a lot of people; reason? The fact that if everyone could afford a car, then there would be as many cars on roads as 2-wheelers (or even more after a certain time), and the outcomes of this are quite predictable. One, it adds to the already killing pollution by liberally contributing more and more of the poisonous gases. Although they claim to have made an eco-friendly car, please agree with me when I say that the eco-friendliness is only relative when compared to other cars. It is never absolute. I mean, there is no way a man made thing can contribute to the betterment (or even sheer maintenance) of our environment. If only a human invention could contribute, it is only in terms of destruction. The only satisfying factor is to be able to decide whether the environment should be completely destroyed in the next 50 years, or the next 500 years. Nothing more is in the human hands. Destruction is destined. Two, parking would seemingly be made available in heaven and hell also – owing to space crunch on Earth. Three, it eventually leads to cosmos-rocketing of the already-in-sky fuel prices as the demand would be more. This would further lead to increase in price of other daily needs of the commoners. Also, the need for manufacturing plants and servicing centers would mean gobbling up of more land from the poor peasants, who never survive the deception of this cruelly political world. Four, the density of traffic increases drastically, increasing the road-congestions very frequently if the roads aren’t widened; and if the roads have to be widened, trees have to be cut down, catalyzing the pollution effect. Five, the ruling party would obviously be pulled into the scene with a demand for all the aforesaid placed before them; the result? They either happily agree to all this, with a condition to increase the tax on the commoners to fund all these ‘improvements’ in the cities and towns; or they reject the petition allowing the commoners to be screwed up royally (We end up being screwed either ways; but without blaming the government in the latter case. That is all the difference). The list doesn’t end here. But for the sake of convenience, I shall stop rolling down the list at this.

Ok! All said and done, it is now time to relate these issues with the growing population. Let us not blame Tata alone for these effects. It was just an example I took. If we had a chance to label these as ‘defects’ and sat together to do the ‘root cause analysis’, I am sure majority of you (at least, if not all) would agree with me when I say that the root cause is the growing population. Would Tata be ever inspired to build the same car if he had seen the same family with just one kid instead of two? In this case, didn’t that ‘family of four’ become an ‘overly populated’ family? Noble questions indeed and they ought to be answered!

Also, we have been observing that the crime rates are on a high, of late. The criminals are all turning out to be too innovative at their jobs (how I wish IT majors would recruit them). Please believe me when I say that I am not joking, and I seriously mean what I said – the criminals are extremely intelligent now-a-days. What has made them intelligent? Or, putting it in another way, why are they ‘criminals’ if they are really so intelligent? The simple reason is lack of proper education in their childhood. They don’t lack intelligence. They only lack education that could help them channelize their intelligence in the right direction. The reason for lack of education is poverty at home. The reason for poverty is unemployment. The reason for unemployment is growing population!

If a simple increment in the count of my lucky number (or the magical number called population) could lead to so many effects, isn’t it high time that we started worrying about it? It is, for certain; and this word of caution is verily what many NGOs are striving to put across to the general public. They are striving to educate the masses. How do they intend to accomplish this task? Observe one day in a year as ‘World Population Day’ and probe the masses to put a conscious effort to understand the situation and its effects. Isn’t this reason sound enough?

There is one interesting thing to be mentioned here. While I was writing all this, one of my friends happened to be at my desk and overlooked my work. He asked me one thing: “Yaar, tell me what you are going to achieve by writing all this? Will the uneducated mass be able to read this at all (based on your allegations of them being the major contributors)? You have to speak up man. There’s no use writing them down”. This indeed made me put on the thinking hat. Finally, I had something to justify.

It is agreed, my dear friend, that I will not be able to reach out the uneducated mass with this writing. But how many ‘educated’ people really know what they are doing? With no offence meant to anyone, wouldn’t we consider Mr. Ratan Tata (or any other business man for that matter, with due respects) an ‘educated’ person? Well, that means he knew something (if not everything) about the continuous increase of my lucky number. That being the case, why didn’t he think of educating people on population explosion when he saw an ‘overly populated’ family travelling dangerously on a scooter, instead of making a car affordable by them? Had he known the long term effects truly well, would he have ventured into this project at all? Ok. Let us also consider the possibility that he knew pretty well that this would affect the environment and daily life of people to a large extent in the long run. If he had taken up this project even after that careful consideration, wouldn’t it show his profit-mindedness over concern for the fellow humans?

In either case, we clearly see that even the educated mass needs to be trained further not to contribute consciously either for the growing population, or for its effects. I would like to re-iterate at this point that this is not the case with Tata’s alone. Every single business man on Earth does nothing more than leeching the fellow humans. Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest applies here as well. Although this is needed up to a certain extent to make a living, over doing it does cause harm to everyone. So there is a great need for the so-called ‘educated’ mass to be ‘truly educated’ in the first place. I hope that this write up does the job (at least to my peers, if not for the big shots).

Having said this, our next aim would be to take this message to every single person on Earth to actually make our life greener. But if you said this blandly to an ignorant man, the first reply that he would snap at you is: “Ok boss, you are telling me that some organizations are working day in and day out to spread this message. Show me one person from the same organization ready to live a life of a celibate, or one who isn’t up for parenting.”

Indeed, that man has a point in what he says; doesn’t he? The only answer, in such a case, that I would have is: “Well, the damage is almost done. Let us awaken before it is too late. Parenting itself is not harmful. But let us not contribute generously in increasing my lucky number. Man should show his miserliness not at contributing wealth to a noble cause, but in contributing to this ever-growing number called population”. Do you agree with me?

So my dear friends, with this I implore each one of you to contribute your might in educating the masses about the reasons, effects and possible solutions for the growing population; and not in increasing the number itself, or its effects! Please do not ignore such days as ‘World Population day’, ‘World Pollution Day’, ‘World Literacy Day’ et al that are observed once a year. Make the full use of those days and do the best that you can to educate the masses (even if it means writing a small blog post or an article in a daily newspaper, or even talking to just one person who seems ignorant about this). Please remember that I am only asking you to be reasonable in observing such ‘days’ (I’m not in for promoting ‘Friendship Day’, ‘Father’s day’, ‘Mother’s day’ et al – there is obviously nothing new about these relationships that the masses need to be made aware of and such things are indeed observed all year round).

Think twice, act wise.

PS: Frankly, I did not do anything useful till date on such ‘days’. Sadly, I didn’t even know the existence of many such days being observed. I read one statement on an online journal (statement mentioned in part 1) that such days are for educating the people. That made me think and this write up is a result of it. I pledge to do something useful on every such ‘day’ from now on; and you?

–The end

The “Explosion” – part 1

The first time I heard about this was when I was in the 7th standard class. We were asked to write an essay on this topic. As ever, all of us had surrendered to the most popular “Essay book for schools” (I’m not very sure about the exact title of the book), which was a text book kind of thing with essays on many common topics in it. We used to pick lines from that book and promptly put it down in our notebooks.

Well, the topic that I am speaking of (rather, writing about) currently is one of the most dreaded topics of the day, a speck funnier to add – Population Explosion!

Each time I got this topic, the very title of the essay would amuse me to the core. “Population – alright. But what’s there to explode?” I used to think. I had by-hearted the population in numbers back then. Each time I was asked to write about it, I used to promptly put down the figures and a few statements elaborating the same. This seemed a speck easier than by-hearting big sentences with inapprehensive words. However, I always failed to realize a funny, yet a harsh truth; the truth that the number I had by-hearted is a magical number; the truth that it keeps changing –more so, increasing – every minute, every second; the truth that someday the same number would make people go in search of possible solutions for the numerous hazards being caused by it. Owing to this ignorance, I kept writing the same number that I had by-hearted – as if it was my lucky number – on all occasions when I was asked to write. The results were many, with the least marks awarded for my essay and my growing ignorance being the non-tangible, yet the most visible and most predictable of all outcomes. Well, can I really claim the essay to be solely ‘mine’? Not really!

But who cared? I was just like any other kid who studies in the 7th standard class; the same kid naturally bundled with abundant ignorance owing to the innocence at the age. How could they ever expect me, or for that matter- the kids at that age, to know the cause and effects of what they call as population ‘explosion’? All I knew was the ‘bomb’ explosion. I used to try hard to think on similar lines what the phrase ‘population explosion’ could mean; imagining people to explode and break into pieces, thus increasing the count of the magical number! Then, I used to wonder, how it is that everyone’s body is intact in spite of the explosion! And more importantly, how is it that I hadn’t exploded yet! I also feared asking this to anyone, lest my ignorance be pushed to the fore!

But nothing teaches as perfectly as time does. The sun kept jumping from East to West, occasionally shifting from North to South and back to North – God knows for how long. I realized that he had been doing this for a significantly long time, only when I had moved out of my school. The calendar announced that the sun had jumped close to 1,825 times from East to West, and shifted almost 10 times from North to South and back to North – which meant the world had recorded five more years of history in its diary. I was now in the 12th standard class, studying biology as one of my subjects; and that was when Archimedes decided to bless me with a boon that even I get a realization of a big ‘Truth’ in a small way, just like how he had! The truth about the increasing population in our country, or even the world for that matter, and its effects dawned on me all of a sudden in the auspicious presence of my biology lecturer in a classroom. I have been wondering about it ever since.

Now returning to my basic doubt, what exactly is exploding here? First of all, I would like to heartily congratulate the person who coined the term – for having coined a very comical, funny, yet a beautifully describing word for what I would call a ‘natural phenomenon’. Had I been born a little late, say with the next generation, I would have certainly categorized this as a ‘natural disaster’! Why would I call it ‘natural’? Well, my dear friend, how else do you think the population would increase? And why is it a ‘disaster’? This write up is the reply to thy question! Most probably, the fast increasing count of the magical number would have seemed like something rapidly blowing up when a bomb is diffused, and hence the term.

Although the word Population Explosion projects a huge problem gnawing at humanity in a much humorous way, it is high time that we started sensing the concern behind this humor. I was reading an online journal the other day, where it said “Whilst the Indo-US Nuclear pact emerged as a major concern, even threatening to cost a party’s political dominance, a significant day went unobserved by the public. The ‘World Population Day’, being celebrated on 11th of July every year throughout the world, did not find any significance in our country this year in the wake of this political drama.”

If a commoner is asked what is so significant about the ‘days’ that we observe, or more so – the World Population Day, he would – in all probability – give a cold stare at you and wonder if you were not educated at school at all. The common perception amongst the larger mass is that we – the people – observe such ‘days’ just to remember/plan a significant thing, once a year at the least (read ‘at the most’). But what they don’t see is the reason why we remembered/planned to do that “something” significant on that day. Was it just to gain publicity as an organization promptly holding some activities on the given ‘day’? For instance, one would have certainly observed numerous institutions and many celebrities planting a sapling on ‘World Environment Day’, marking their commitment to afforestation and leaving the sapling’s growth to nature’s mercy from the very next day onwards. They tend to ‘remember’ Mother Nature only on that day and nothing more. Not that all organizations or all celebrities do this act, but definitely a majority of them would!

A significantly large number of people believe that observing such ‘days’ as the ‘World Environment Day’, ‘World Literacy Day’, ‘World Population Day’ et al. is absolutely of no worth at all; and that people should be educated to observe the same all year round, instead. I have often heard people mellowing “What is the use of having this feeling on one day in a year? One should have the same feeling throughout the year. There is no need to reserve one day for such activities.”

While it is heartening to see that those people know their responsibilities well, we also need to note something equally important on the other hand. It is agreed that the ignorant should be educated regarding their ‘all-year-round’ responsibilities. But at the same time, observing such ‘day’s once a year would also play a significant role in reaching out to the masses and actually educating them. It is an opportunity to the educated class to bring on par with them their non-educated counterparts, so that the world isn’t destroyed owing to sheer ignorance of man – the “kind”.

Having said this, we would then be required to know for ourselves, at the first place, what the cause and effects of population explosion could be – in order that we educate the rest of the mass. I happened to be talking to one of my distant relatives back in my hometown about this, and all he had to say is this:
“Srinivasa, you would certainly agree with me that if you do not beget a male child, then you are doomed to be rotting in hell. You would have no place in heaven, since you wouldn’t have anyone to perform your rites when you depart.”

Although I am religious to some extent, my heart actually refused to second his opinion. Upon reflecting on his thoughts for some more time, I only realized that this small thought was a huge contributor to the increasing magical number. The rural mass, at times, are being ill-educated. We all would have practically seen many couples, especially in the rural areas, begetting a child after child, after another child – with all their ‘efforts’ going in vain with the birth of a baby girl every time. Their only wish would be to beget a baby boy; and even if they end up with their ‘only desire’ satiated, it would often be the case where the baby boy is not the ‘only child’ from that couple. Imagine the same scenario on a larger scale, with many couples involved from numerous villages across the span of our nation. With this, obviously my lucky number (the magic number) would go for a toss. Wouldn’t it?

But who instilled this superstition among the people? This is a noble question that ought to be answered. Observing carefully through our history and mythology, we read that the people (especially the characters in the Hindu mythology) had many children in those days (easily more than 5000 years ago). This started right from Brahma (the creator). The legend has it that he had four sons (said to be born out of mind, called ‘brahma maanasa putra’), and named them Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanatkumara. They were verily the embodiments of renunciation. The creator begot the four sons to advance his creation, or ‘increase the population’ in simple terms. But they were so unmindful of the worldly pleasures that they refused to reproduce and took a vow of celibacy for life. The frustrated Brahma then gave birth to sage Narada and wished that at least he would take his process of creation forward by reproducing. But to Brahma’s dismay, even Naranda remained a celibate for life. Thus were born many sages from Brahma (the seven popular sages, also believed to be the stars in the ‘saptarshi mandala’), who were granted the power to attain the Supreme even though they remained in this material world begetting children and thus taking his process of creation forward.

As we can see, the legend itself trumpets the birth of so many people, meant to ‘increase the population’. When this is taught to the rural masses, you obviously wouldn’t expect them to act otherwise. Would you? I don’t see any mistake on their part, rather in their ignorance. The onus is on us – the educated lot – to convince them about the facts.

Now, if you alleged that all this is being told only against the rural masses, wait a minute. Let us try and think about the state that existed some five decades back in the urban areas; a time when religion and spirituality were at their maxima. Everyone was being taught the 2 great epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata. Well, I don’t see any issue here. They certainly have to be studied, I agree. But was the right thing communicated to the right people in a right way? I am sure the ‘educators’ of the yester years would want to attend the ‘articulation and assertiveness skills’ session, at least a few of them if not all. Some of the main points highlighted in Ramayana would include somethings like ‘King Dasharatha had four sons and King Janaka had four daughters’. The epic goes on to depict the mutual love they showed towards each other. All said well, but at the end of it, the educator would also want to convey the right message to the masses. If the statement that I instantiated above was communicated to the masses without elaborating on one particular thing (which will be obvious after you read this), the obvious picture in the minds of the people would be to beget at least three to four kids (or even more, in case they are ‘blessed’) – each of them displaying unconditional love, among themselves as well as to their parents. That, they would consider, is a ‘perfect’ family. Same is the case with Mahabharata too. I would say Kunti would have been a better candidate for the authorship of ‘My experiments with…’ series of books; experimenting motherhood before marriage, begetting five sons just for the sake of experimenting a hymn on different demi-gods, getting those five sons married to a single lady, et al. King Dhritarashtra fathering 100 sons is something that catches the attention of the masses easily! Perhaps, the author – sage Vyasa – would have assumed the least bit of common sense among his audience, which many people have failed to display. They would rather look at it in a different perspective. Proof? The trend that existed some decades back – “We two, ours twenty”, which thankfully reduced to “We two, ours two” (or ‘I one and mine one’, put in more basic terms) over a certain time period. Now, we are only left with the hope of “We two, ours one” for which a huge array of institutions are striving hard to take this message to a larger mass.

I don’t wholly blame the generation that had the “We two, ours – donno” attitude. It was the case where the mortality (both child and adults) rates were very high, and somehow the balance existed. But as time progressed, only the medicinal field kept pace along with it, with numerous inventions and discoveries to reduce the mortality rates. The human brain, however, remained in the same state. There was no magic played on it, which has turned out to be the most unfortunate thing today. People failed to understand that as mortality rates reduced, we also needed to check on natality; and the result? My lucky number is growing beyond limits; or could we say it is ‘exploding’?

–To be continued…