My Aunt’s cat

“Pets” are lucky beings that get love, affection and caring from humans. In return pets fulfill their duties by offering good companionship, comfort and security to their masters. Some people are in so much of love with their pets that they do not differentiate them to be animals but part of the human society.

My old aunt whom I recently met after several years lives a lonely life. Her sole companion is a small, black, frail cat that she loves as her own son and is in always praise of it. In my recent meeting with her I got to see her pet.

The small house that my aunt lives is among one of the many houses lined along one of the busy streets of a small town in India. The rising dust from the vehicles passing by on the road has turned the narrow two storey house, muddy. Small dark passage from the main entrance leads to the upper store which my aunt calls her home. As I walked to the upper store climbing the stairs one by one, my legs brushed against something soft on one of the steps. I could hardly notice in the darkness what that thing was. I would easily step on it if I hadn’t heard the chirpy “meow” that the thing cried out. There is sat on one of the steps with its legs tucked below its body. As I brushed it, he got on his feet quickly and as I moved towards the door of the house, he ran ahead of me and made it selves comfortable in one of the warm cozy corners of the house. He gave one strange look at me and slowly closed his eyes and relaxed. The familiar shaky voice of my old aunt was quick to question “Who is it at the door?” I announced myself to her as I settled in one of the old wooden chairs in the room. My aunt looked at me with her eyes sharpened in the dim light. “Oh, it is you my child… after a long time, how good to see you” she said. I had met her after almost two years.”Did Mani show you the way to home?” she asked. I guessed it was the cat that she was referring to. “Yes, off course he did” I said with a smile. She smiled back at me and then with kindness, caressed Mani. “He is such a smart boy”. “I have not seen a cat in my life as intelligent as he is”, words of appreciation were soon to shower on Mani. “Will you have some hot milk or you like some biscuits” that was a token for his smartness to show me the way to the door.

“He will snuggle around the legs and then bows down with respect (as if to say “Namaste”, the traditional Indian salutation)” to known people. “See how he soon recognized you to be a non stranger”. “Come on boy, show how you salute”.” She ordered Mani. When he Grrred, she pulled out a stick from beneath a cot to scare it a little. Mani ran with fear and quickly clung to my legs and shrank between my feet. “Yes… see how he obeys now.. see how he is bowing to you with respect” Aunt said. “He is too smart”. “You know…He knows that it is forbidden to eat flesh in the house (my Aunt is a strict vegetarian) so he devours rats, lizards and other flesh outside the house. There was little that I could do to verify that. I just kept listening. “And when he is done, he washes himself and then comes inside”. Wow too good manners for a cat, so tidy and clean. And how intelligent that he knows my Aunt is a strict vegetarian I thought with sarcastic amusement.” He never puts his mouth in the milk bowl inside the house. If he wants milk, he signals by voicing “meow” and gesturing meaningfully to come out with him to serve him milk outside”. “He loves chicken. Whenever we pass by the chicken store next door, he “meows” and gestures with his head and eyes rolling, asking us to buy a lump of flesh for him to eat”. “You know…he understands two languages already.” She moved close to his face and talked to him in a different language to prove to me that he indeed understands. Mani kept shaking his head and kept crying meow in response. My Aunt thought that was the sign that he really understood what she was saying. “Whenever guests leave home, he follows them to the door to bid them good-bye”. What an impressive little chap he was !. Too much for an animal to do. Could be envy for any kid at home I thought. I knew that my aunt was over exaggerating everything about Mani. But the fact that she was drawing so much happiness in that and the loneliness that she was trying to kill with the help of the cute little thing, was heart touching.

Fanatical Order

In a closed, dark, secretive enclave, in a remotely unknown place, there assembled a group of notorious men. There was silence in the room except for one man who spoke, seated at the center, circled by the group. He had dark glasses on, and had serious disposition. He had a deep scar across his cheek which suggested he had probably dared a valorous fight. His gestures demonstrated that he cared least for others but expected others to follow his orders. With each of his instructions there was consensus of agreement and dreadful cheer. His voice was authoritative and imperious. There was no scope to raise a question on his orders. Questioning him was considered as questioning his authority and rebellion to this status. There were rules that bound each member of the group. The activities of the group were carried out in secrecy.  Members of the group had to follow the discipline of the hierarchy. The motive of the group was to spread the order and have  people in following and to establish its supremacy and govern the lives of people by the rules of the group. Extortion, kidnapping, terror, intimidation were the basis of the ideology. Opposing the ideals of the group was considered betrayal and was punishable by death. Fear and punishment formed the basis of the ideology.

Far away in a remote place, under a quite, expansive edifice with tall towers, there stood a man with a dark robe that extended from neck to his toe. There assembled a large crowd who listened to the man faithfully. The edifice was silent with only the voice of the man in the dark robe in high pitch. The man’s voice was imperious. His words followed from a book he held that he swore was from a supreme authority who had written the book and who claimed to be proclaimer of the will of god. His words were un- questionable. He quoted from the book and elaborated the meaning. Following the quotes, there was common consensus and a dreadful cheer. Questioning the teachings was considered questioning the supreme authority who spoke through the book. There were rules that bound the followers of that book. Faithful to the book had to follow the discipline of the hierarchy prescribed by the supreme authority. The motive of the authority was to spread the ideology and establish supremacy and govern the lives of people by the rules of the book. Terror, intimidation or deception, if done for the cause of spreading the ideology, was considered righteous duty and forgivable by the supreme. Opposing the ideals of the supreme authority was blasphemous, punishable by death. Fear and punishment formed the basis of the ideology.

Ideals of both were parallel. One had a face that communicated its followers; the other was hidden in disguise. The former had a minority following, the later had following at large, across boundaries.  The former carried out the criminal acts and was known for his notoriety. The later did the same but in anonymity and disguise . The former was considered evil and threat to the society while the other, who was a greater threat, not just for society but the entire humanity was mistaken to be peaceful diviner. Both were sides of the same coin, both followed fanatical order.

Making Sense Of Phonics

@ Sketch by Me

As we get ready for our daughter’s phonics lessons , it is time for us to experience the English phonics lessons ourselves which we have never studied as students back in our native country. Coming from a non-English speaking country(India) pronouncing English according to Phonics as taught in the American schools is a new a different experience. Even though many of us learn in convent English medium schools back in our home country, the way English is pronounced is influenced by the native language phonetics. So we grow up learning to pronounce English the way we would do in our native languages. That results in an accent way different from native English speaker’s English, which though not obvious to non-English speaker’s ears, sounds unusual to the native English speakers. Often ridiculed to be wacky  and subject of satire  in some English movies and stand up comedy shows (If you have seen Russel Peters stand-up comedy you can recall Indian English accent getting tormented…. “Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad” ?? ). On the other side, non native speakers wonder why English speakers speak the way they do.

The same goes with writing English words following phonics. Non-Native English speakers who are used to writing as they hear and pronounce words find it difficult and confusing when certain words are not written the way they are pronounced per phonetics. It is challenging at the same time to explain why many words are not written the same way as they are pronounced to a kid who has just started learning phonics.” Cow”, “Cat”, “Cap” makes sense but “CYCLE”  which sounds as “S” does not make sense, why not write “Sycle” instead?. Why are many words which sound like “S” written starting with “C” , like  ”Cinema”, “City” , “Circus” etc. It is difficult to explain these subtle differences to the curious little minds for which we struggle to seek an answer ourselves. When I ask my daughter which letter does “cereal”, that she is fond of eating daily for her breakfast, starts with, She replies with ease , “S”. When I say, “No” , it starts with “C” she questions me why? I do not have an answer why it should start with “C” rather than “S”. Many times it is confusing to make a difference between words that start with “K” and “C” the same way. And all those silent killers? Knee, Know, Knob, Knight.. Why use them when they don’t sound in the first place?. But off course , there must have been some reason the word structure is made the way it is. Back in the days as a student, we did not have much choice when learning in English medium in our native country. If the teacher said “Cereal” starts with “C”, it had to start with “C”, no questions asked. It would had been so much fun, if we were exposed to this area of learning English with phonics. Learning wouldn’t have seemed a liability but a joy. With all the complexities in phonics , writing and several exceptions to the stated rule however, English language remains “exceptional” indeed.

Google wishes me Happy Birthday!

Today January 26, 2013 , my birthday. I was expecting my friends and family to be the first people to call and wish me as I wake up in the morning. It was none of my family member nor any known friends, but  an unexpected friend who was the first to wish, as I received my unusual birthday wish. That unexpected friend was “GOOGLE”. Yes, I proudly call it a friend, since it has helped me as a friend in all my search needs over the past several years, be it at work or at home or anywhere on the go.

google birthday wish

As a usual habit,  soon after getting out of bed, I opened by laptop to read news of the day online. I launched my browser on my laptop, whose default page is set to google search page. The google logo (The text at the center of the page just above the search box) that displays each time the search page is opened looked something different. I didn’t realize it  until I noticed it closely. There were lit candles , stars, decorative flowers, cakes of different variety and shapes in the google logo. At first glance I thought it might be for an eventful day.May be some festive day of some faith or some other important day that the logo represents for the day. My still drowsy head was not able to think much. But when I hovered the mouse over the logo , the hover text that displayed over it, took me by surprise. “Happy birthday Anand”. I was pleasantly surprised. Google was wishing me a “Happy Birthday”. It knew that today is my birthday. I couldn’t but appreciate the intelligence of google.I was so happy to see it. It somehow(probably from the google registration details?) picked my birthday, customized the display to give me my birthday surprise with the personalized birthday logo.

How technology revolves around our day-to-day lives is surprising.It is a different topic of debate as to how the new age technology and the tech savvy companies are encroaching our privacy. But at the same time, the extent to which these tech companies go to keep their users happy is really praise worthy. Not surprising then, a happy customer like me would come back to their service over and over again. Customer happiness is what wins brand loyalty. Today, google made me feel like a celebrity by personalizing the google logo for me.

I’m not sure how many google users have noticed this seemingly small thing, but which goes to show the extent that google values it’s users. As a small token of appreciation to google, I thought of posting this on my blog. When you google next time, do not forget to check this out if that day happens to be your birthday. You need to be logged in to google to see it though.

Happy googling!!.

Mahakumbh

Naga Sadhus at the Mahakumbh

On January 13th, commenced one of the biggest religious congregations in the human history. No, it wasn’t in Vatican, nor was it in Mecca or in Jerusalem.The biggest religious congregation was neither Christian nor of Islamic faith as would be invariably assumed because of the vast number of adherents of both the faiths around several countries in the world. The biggest congregation however was that of adherents of the Hindu faith. Adherents of Hinduism constitute  the third largest religious group in the world with 90 percent living in India. It is also the largest congregation of holy men anywhere in the world. This congregation is called the Mahakumbh. Around 11 Million people gathered for the holy bath on the banks of river Ganges, in Allahabad , India on January 14th alone. Over the next 2 months as many as 100 million people are expected to participate in this humongous congregation.Several thousands coming from countries other than India.

The tradition of Mahakumbh is believed to be  several thousand years old, which delves in the story of the Devas(noble me or gods) and Asuras(demons) who according to Hindu mythology, are believed to have fought for the pitcher of Amruta(nectar), consuming which would make them immortals. In this battle between good and evil, as expected, the Devas  or the noble ones, won. In the course of the fight four drops of nectar fell on four places on earth(apparently all those places were in the Indian subcontinent ). The places where the nectar fell is considered holiest of the holy by the Hindus and that is where the holy congregation happens once in every three years to commemorate the victory of good over the evil. The last of the congregation is the fourth Kumbh which is on the twelfth year and is called Mahakumbh( Maha-Mega, Kumbh-Pitcher).

A Sadhu taking bath in Holy Ganges

For the people who know about the Mahakumbh, it is more than just the holy congregation. It is the life time experience of the confluence of the spiritual thoughts that happens at the Kumbh. The real-time experience of Yogic mysticism attracts some people, especially people from western countries eager to learn about eastern religious philosophy. Yet many other curious enthusiasts flock the Kumbh to get glimpse of some of the most unbelievable and some bizarre practices demonstrated by the Sadhus and Yogis (Holy men) like,  lifting blocks of bricks with their genitals, pulling carts with genitals, rolling and twisting the genitals with stick much to the awe of the people. A show of yogic energy to control the sexual energy which forms the basis of sexual tantra. Some perform advanced forms of Yoga postures. It is very common to see naked Sadhus (called Naga Sadhus) with dreadlocks, , smeared with holy ash and vermillion all over their faces and bodies, roaming in thousands and demonstrating their martial arts. I had a chance to talk to a person recently who had once  visited Kumbh when it last happened. One account of his experience was hard to believe. He mentioned that he saw  a Sadhu who sucked a glass of Ghee(clarified butter) with his private part before a group of people. Yes, too bizarre to believe. He said this was a yogic Kriya(process) called Urdhva Rethi, or reversing the order of natural flow of fluids from the body,which is only possible through years of yogic practice and continence.

All the bizarreness and hustle of crowd, the rising decibel that deafen the ears, and all the nakedness  apart, the interesting thing however is to know how several thousand-year old tradition still coexists with the modern world (Just some hundreds of miles apart is Delhi , the urban bustling capital of India). And out of nowhere saffron clad holy men congregate at this place in millions in a short period. The fact that such a long tradition still survives and is growing every passing years is a great example of sustainability. The governmental arrangement to support such a huge crowd, with several million tents, makeshift hospitals, cell phone towers, eateries etc is also a demonstration of incredible mass scale planning. A vast vacant land is suddenly converted into a mega city with millions and millions of people. A Mahakumbh ( Mega Pitcher) of diverse and interesting people indeed.

Gun culture and the massacre of innocents

Friday, Dec 14th 2012, was like any other day of the weekend for many Americans, but not for some parents. This day turned lives of some families upside down. Twenty gruesome killings of innocent school children, in the Sandy Hook elementary school in the small town of Newtown, Connecticut shattered dreams of many parents. A lunatic went on rampage , killing innocent kids at the school, after killing his own mother.

As a parent of two small kids, my heart goes to those poor families who lost their dear ones in this mindless killing. No amount of condolences , no amount of grief can ever  fill the void that is created in their lives with their loved ones gone for ever. It is difficult for the hearts of those parents to accept that they will never see their loved ones anymore. Every kid on the street that they will come across, every passing of the school bus, every laughter of some kid somewhere , will keep reminding those unfortunate parents of their own kids for years and years to come. A loss that can never be filled again. What a heavy price paid for no apparent mistake of anyone.

With such incidents on the rise, several questions come to the mind. “What makes someone in a civilized world commit such heinous crime , to kill innocents who have nothing to do with anything ?”  ”Is it the social deprivation that drives someone crazy to commit such act?”  or it is the Gun culture prevalent in American society that promotes such condemnable act. What kind of motive drives such people to act in this crazed manner. It is beyond understanding. We live in a developed country, with supposed civilized people, so to speak, but yet such incidents compels to think , are we really living in a civilized world? . The nature of such unpredictable, unmotivated killings makes this issue more dangerous.It can happen anytime , to anyone, and by anyone. Take the examples of the recent Colorado theater killings, the killings of Sikhs in a place of worship in Wisconsin and several others that happened during this year. Incidents of such unpredictable nature , pose a real challenge to the society in general.

To a great extent, the American gun culture is responsible for such unfortunate incidents. Blame it on the antiquated American laws that promote possession of arms, which easily fall into the hands of such psychopaths. What is the need to keep guns at home? Is America in some civil war? Are people killing each other for land and food that you need protection with guns? Are the police and the government not capable of providing enough protection that you have to resort to self-protection?  The laws that were created centuries back ( mid 18th century to be precise) for personal arms possession , were enacted,  owing to the hostility and constant confrontation between  the early American settlers. Keeping a gun for protection was considered a tenet of American identity at that time and it became a tradition. But, whom do you have a hostility with  today? Why do you feel threatened that you need to possess guns at home anymore now? There is no one here trying to kill you that you need to keep guns at home. America is not going through a civil war anymore. You have magnitude of entertainment resources, abundance of food, which people from impoverished nations can only dream of. You have such abundance of food , that it goes wasted daily, so much so in a day that, it can feed a person in an under developed world for an entire year. But despite all these comforts and riches you are still not happy and satisfied with what you have, that you have to resort to killing innocents out of some crazy personal frustration ? Is this a sign of development and civilization? Is someone’s personal ego more important than a precious life?

We pride ourselves to be living in a land which is supposed to be the safest place on earth, but yet such incidents puts that thought in question. Is America safe with such crazed people anymore? Will there be an end to this Gun culture?

Funny English Language!

English is a nice language. The language of the Imperial that once  ruled 3/4th of the globe. The language of Shakespeare  and Wordsworth. It is the only language that is officially accepted as a universal language in the world.  Spanish and French give it some competition but not sufficient enough to come close to it. Thanks (or curse)  to the English Empire that ruled the world from east to west that imposed English language, enabling easy communication around the world.

Aside its nobility, English language is complicated and funny at its best . It is one of those languages that does not follow a hard and fast rule on its structure. Most of the grammatical rules have some or the other exceptions. English grammar is one of the hardest area to master in my personal opinion. Why don’t we spell “go”, “so” the same way as “do”,”to”?.  Why are some letters silent?. Why should we pronounce “Knight” as if it sounds “nite” with the “k” silent?. Who decided certain letters to be silent? Why do we even need a silent letter when we have to ignore it eventually?  Why don’t we just write as we spell a word. Why shouldn’t we not write “masal” for “muscle” when we want to pronounce it as “masal”. Why not pronounce “CHEmical” same way as we spell “CHErry”.  Why create so much confusion and complicate things? There are already lot of complications in life, English language just adds another one.

With so many exceptions to the rule, makers of English have made it difficult for people to master it. The only option left is to memorize half of the English language as to how it should be pronounced, spelled and written. We hate to memorize.

Colors Of Change

It is that time of the year again. The fall announced its arrival with its brilliant display of colors. The maple trees that line up the driveway to my home, seem like beautiful damsels, with their colorful attires, waiting to greet the passers-by.

The silky rays of the sun, shine on the leaves as they gracefully embrace the leaves to transfer their warmth. The slow transformation of the leaves from the green to the more colorful, seem like a film playing in slow motion.  Never is the time of the year such romantic , motivating, energetic and colorful.

The “End Of The World” that comes and goes

Not so Dear  “End of the World”,

You have been special to many. From the Mayan to the Modern world, you have been the favorite topic of predictions and discussions. You were believed to come from beginning of 2012. Some believed you will come with a devastating avatar and end the world. In distant corner of  California, an evangelist roamed with his huge fancy Van calling people to submit to the lord to be saved because, the world is coming to an end.  From a remote basement of a house, a foolish technocrat developed a website to welcome you with daily account of your expected arrival. A cunning director made lot of money featuring you in a movie, certainly, cashing on the fear of the public.  An enthusiast lady planned a world tour before everything was gone forever. A lazy employee refused to take any more responsibility at work since the world was coming to end anyway and, he had no one to answer to.  Somewhere an innocent teen was depressed that he bought a new iPhone and cannot use it longer. You became the joke of the decade. When someone would plan for future, people would ask “Why do you plan for your future, when the world is coming to an end in 2012?”

We are almost done with 2012 and getting ready for Christmas and holidays. I don’t see any signs of you coming. I do not worry, nor believe that you can ever come. Because I know you are not real but just a feeling that comes and goes all the time. And this feeling comes several times to several people. I just heard from my friend that his world is coming to an end….. (Shhh!!! His girl friend caught him screwing someone else).

Welcome  Christmas , Santa and a bright new year to come shortly . Enjoy rest of “End of the World”.

The Silence Of The Moderates

MALALA YOUSUFZAI, this name has come to represent, the voice of those millions of innocent girls like her, yearning for peace, freedom and education in the oppressed society governed by evil forces like the Taliban. It is  generally the weaker section of the society, that is the women, which bears the brunt of the male dominated chauvinist ideology. It was not surprising that the Taliban, the dangerous cult that dwells on the core principles of oppression, terrorism, ignorance and hatred imposed ban on the girls from going to school and studying, along with ban on anything that represents a secular free society. On Oct 9, 2012, Malala Yousufzai, the innocent girl, aspiring for education and freedom was attacked by a Taliban gunman in an attempt to assassinate her. Her crime? She was outspoken about the atrocities of the Taliban, She liked freedom, She wanted to go to school, She wanted peace in her loving home land. Ironically, the word “Taliban” means “Students” in Pashto language. What a shame, ones calling themselves “students” do not understand the importance of education. On the contrary, the Taliban claim that their act was justified. This was their statement released to the press in their own words “We did not attack her for raising voice for education. We targeted her for opposing mujahideen and their war. Sharia (Islamic law based on Quran) says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam.”

The Taliban along with its fascist allies were at the forefront to criticize and call for beheading of the makers of the movie on the Prophet of Islam. What followed since the posting of the movie was widespread violent protests, killings, arson in many  parts of the Muslim world that lasted for more than a month. The so-called moderates were not far in criticizing and expressing their anger on the movie, pouring down in streets around the world. The supposedly moderate and secular government of Pakistan went to the extent of shutting down the whole country in protest of the movie. While there were widespread protests against a cheesy movie (which is not even worthy of mention) on the Prophet of Islam, the heinous act of the Taliban did not receive the same kind of criticism.

Image courtesy: Reuters

Why are those moderate voices which roared on the streets to denounce the movie not heard now, when an innocent girl is struggling for her life? Why don’t those voices fill the streets to criticize the abominable acts of the Taliban? Where was the moderate government of Pakistan when the assassins were preparing to attack the poor girl? Except for some candle light vigils and a handful  demonstrations mostly by women activists, there has been no public criticism for this act of violence in Pakistan itself where this happened, let alone other parts of the world. Nor has there been an official criticism of the Taliban by the Pakistani government despite the fact that the Taliban has killed thousands of innocent people in the Swat valley and continues to do so to this day. Once again the Taliban has proved that it is their voice that reverberates stronger than the moderate voices.

Silence of the moderates could only mean, either the moderates agree with the ideology of the Taliban or they are too timid to speak against such ideology. It is the silence of the moderates that gives courage to the tiny minority such as Taliban to exert their ideology over the majority. It is the silence of the moderates that lets a handful fanatics to hijack the faith and use it to suit their evil agenda.When the moderates can come strongly to defend their faith if someone criticizes it, why can’t they come to denounce those who misuse the faith, if they think it is misused?. If the evil has to be eradicated, the moderate voices should resonate, resonate stronger and stronger.