Some Reflections...

RV Trip through the SouthWest

2021-01-31T01:28:00.005-08:00

My blog is not meant to be a travel blog or a journal of events, I had meant for it to be an introspective dive into my thoughts and feelings. Now, after my first RV trip in Oct 2020; I no longer see a distinction between the two. Why write about this trip when I haven't written about Cancun or Jodhpur or Thanjavur? That's because this trip was a learning experience like none other.

I learned much from my friends; from cooking skills to gadgets, to handling uncertainties. Pretty amazed at their organization skills; They've introduced me to the idea of getting to a place, doing some activity there, and driving to the next place. The trip was a challenge to my physical and mental abilities. Much to my pleasant surprise, I'm 40 and I can still scale heights, climb rockfaces (with some coaching :) ), kayak, walk by freezing lakes, and all of this on one large meal a day and a few snacks here and there.

I learned about the RV sub-culture and the whole eco-system. I learned about what you can do with an RV, where you can take it and where you cannot.. and now I know about "grey-water" and "black-water".

And finally, I learned about all the different places I visited; all of the above was an experience amidst the rugged beauty of the American southwest, an unforgettable treat to the eyes.

Destinations:

Lava Tubes

Hike to hot springs

Lake Mead

One of the most scenic places that I have been to.

Emerald Cove

The Kayak ride was great, but the cove itself was a little underwhelming.

Fish Lake, Utah

What exactly did we do here, lol? I learned the concept of dressing in layers. Your regular day-to-day clothes can protect you well in sub-zero temperatures if you stack them up. Gloves and a ski-mask would have been more useful.

Lake Powell

Another highlight of the trip. This place was just awesome and so was the drive to this place from Utah.

Horseshoe Bend

Part of the grand canyon, the eastern rim. I guess I don't have to say more.. some amazing rock formations.

Meteor crater

An amateur astronomer's dream come true.

Sedona Arizona

Some interesting rock formations and a clever tour guide.

RV:

The first thing to know about an RV is that it is not an off-road vehicle. If your regular Sedan can't go on a road, your RV most certainly cannot. Driving it on icy slopes and unpaved roads is super hard. There are places where you can park it, and there are places where you cannot. If you park it on sand, the wheel is going to sink. It happened to us and we had to be towed.

If you are stuck in the middle of nowhere, having Verizon as your service provider is a lifesaver. My service provider.

And in that context, I now know what Jeeps are for, they are true off-roaders; they go on top of boulders and rocks. This why you see RVs towing a Jeep.

Similarly, driving an RV in high wind conditions is scary, it is one of the most un-aerodynamic vehicles, the front part is shaped like a parachute. We were almost knocked out of the road a couple of times.

Finally, the sewage disposal :) it is easy, but pulling the levers in the wrong order can lead to some nasty consequences. Familiarize yourself with grey/black water. The tube is like a slinky, learn how to handle it :)

Climbing:

I just realized that going up a rock face is easier than coming down, the reason being you know where you are going. Climbing is as much about Problem-solving as it is about physical ability. You have 4 appendages, 3 remain locked in place while 1 has to be moved to the target spot. And, you need to know exactly where that target spot is.

Health and Fitness:

The brain may not be able to work on an empty stomach, but the body certainly can. I was pretty amazed that I could engage 3-5 hours of physical activity a day on 1 large meal. Lost about 8 pounds in that week. Seems to be the best way to lose fat and keep in shape :)

Toys for Boys:

Here are some cool items that my friends introduced me to

Light-weight quick-dry towel - easy to carry around while traveling
HeadLamp, i.e. flashlight with a headband, it can be very helpful in caves
Some cool card games - Coup, Exploding kittens
Kitchen stuff - Non-stick Tava, the ready-made Rotis, veggie-burgers, small sauce-pan (for boiling milk, for South-Indian style coffee)

Regrets:

The first one was not bringing my telescope along. We had some clear night skies in the desert; would have been a good opportunity for star and planet gazing.

The second and more scary thing that we shouldn't have done was taking a rooftop ride on a couple of jeeps. Not a place where we could easily balance ourselves and there was no way to communicate with the driver i.e. tell the driver to stop and let us off. I have promised myself to not do that again

Cancun notes

2019-02-19T07:50:00.001-08:00

1. Loved the Cenotes
2. Snorkeling - Do it with your swimming glasses; the reef will be shallow.
3. The ruins are OK.
4. Resort attached residences are not so good - No water, no food, no microwave, no fridge
5. International calling set up with T-Mobile was a mess.
6. There is no Uber, cab drivers rip you off

A prayer borrowed

2018-08-25T12:30:00.004-07:00

In support of the Carnatic musicians.. TM Krishna..

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
    for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your Kodanda and your sudarshana
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
We both lose ourselves in your infinite glory
and you shall dwell[f] in the house of our hearts
forever.[g]

Echo and Narcissus

2018-06-05T21:56:00.001-07:00

Echo and Narcissus,

Two character flaws, blind repetition & self-obsession.

The struggle continues

2018-04-25T21:19:00.003-07:00

Muscles are beyond sore..
Knees and Ankles are about to give up..
The body shudders..
The mind is now too numb to beg for mercy..
Exhaustion turns in to a migraine..
Everything tells me I've done my due diligence in the ring..
And yet the pot belly adamantly sticks out..

The struggle continues ..

-

Cooking

2018-03-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

That seems to be the general indian pattern :)

1. Cut the vegetables
2. Saute the garnishing spices
3. Saute the vegetables
4. Add water, masala, rice, lentils
5. Cook under pressure

The Omniscient Dream

2017-05-20T16:28:00.008-07:00

Have you heard of the omnipotent dilemma? Can God create a stone so big that he can't move it?
I may have stumbled upon an equivalent dilemma in the context of omniscience.

At times, when I'm asleep, I know that I'm sleeping, and I have tried to get myself to wake up; But I'm so sleepy that I can't; there is a struggle and I'm confused about what has happened. Have I woken up or am I still in my bed, dreaming that I'm brushing my teeth?

So, how do I assure myself that I have woken up? I do so by observing the level detail that I'm perceiving. Reality has a lot more detail, almost infinitely more detail. In real life, every task has a dozen intermediate steps, often unforeseen intermediate steps; Whereas in a dream, the moment the thought of doing something occurs and the task is done.

Say, I decide to step outside my apartment and go to the common area and have a look at the snow capped peaks around Seattle. The task would take about 30 seconds, and while doing so, I get to perceive so many things that my mind didn't remember.. the plants big and small, the houses and the shadows that they cast, the clouds, the dust on the floor, the people, their faces, their clothes and finally, the hill tops themselves don't exactly look as my mind remembered them to be. But, in my dream, I think of doing it and the next moment I have done it; but only to the extent my mind remembers.. My mind is finite, and it cannot hold the humungous amount of information that this much larger world pours at it..

But what if my mind is of infinite capacity? If it can hold every little piece of knowledge about the world? And in that situation if I fall asleep and start dreaming.. Would I be able to tell the difference between a dream and a perception of reality?

So, can God, an omniscient being, be absolutely sure that he is awake and isn't dreaming? :)

தலைவன் கூற்று Haiku-ed away..

2015-11-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

The Joys of mixing are never near..
For the pouring rain, I fear;
Red Earth I am, ever wanting to get redder

Oahu notes

2015-03-21T11:39:00.002-07:00

Surfing

The ocean i.e. the reef @ Waikiki is shallow. Don't be scared :)
All you need to do is stand up on the board :)
If you fall, just pull the board back to you using the harness, don't swim to it :)

Snorkeling

The equipment is available in stores, practice in a pool
It is quite easy.

Rental Car

you don't need one
Most places have tours that pick you up from the hotel

Air turbulence

It is OK, don't be scared :)

Gangadhara

2013-06-18T23:18:00.002-07:00

Here is version 2.0 :)

Tearing the heavens, when she decided to pour,

You pinned her in those locks; O, Yogi of yore;

But when she swells from below, to steal an embrace;

You seem to take it, with that calm stoic face..

***

I will get this to rhyme some day, but here is the idea..

You pinned her in those locks,

when she descended from the heavens..

But when she swells from below, for a passionate embrace..

What do you do?

O, Prince of the Yogis..

A visage, a thought..

2013-03-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

A clutter of random objects

With no purpose apparent, wrought?

Most would argue, not..

In a corner, for a moment, a visage, a thought..

Such is life?

One could argue, not..

Toothache and Time Travel

2013-02-11T11:42:00.003-08:00

Which one is more fascinating, History or Alternate History? All those great sagas draw me in, I wander through the ages. I wonder what it would be like to actually be there, to march with legions, to sweep across the steppes with the Mongol horsemen, to sail with the Armada.

And then, what would the world be like if that stray arrow didn’t hit Raja Hemu? What if the Greeks didn’t ignore the steam engine that they had invented? What if the Ming Chinese didn’t abandon their voyages? At times, I sit on a hillock overlooking the cities of these worlds that never happened.

But then, would my own life be any different if I lived in those worlds or epochs? After all, I do live in the Silicon Valley, the technological hub of the greatest technological civilization that ever existed. But when I climb mission peak and look down upon it, I should get goose bumps; isn’t it the same as looking down at imperial Rome from the Palatine hill? I guess what ultimately matters is the small world around me, my job and my pursuits. My life would have the same daily trifles and banality if renaissance had started in South India and I were living in a Venice like city in the Kaveri delta, lined with coconut trees, Gopurams and Vimanas. Of course, I’m overlooking the fact that I may never come to existence in that Universe.

Nothing hits that feeling home harder than a visit to the dentist. A few minutes of drilling and filling, and there is one overwhelming feeling of gratitude. The legions, the hordes and the Armada are all great, but thank God I live in the time blessed with anesthetics.

Friend

2011-12-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

Wrapping up a vacation in India, leaving home and heading back to work and life all by myself has never been an easy thing. To help ease this transition, I try to take back a piece of it with me; souvenirs, pictures, Tamil movie DVDs and so on. This time there was an added bonus, the Sun and the time immemorial Sunrise. My parents are blessed to have an apartment right by the beach in Chennai, and I have an apartment quite close to the SF Bay.

It may have already been explored by tens of thousands of poets, painters and photographers; but even then, the rays playing with the water can never become something less magical. The beauty of a new day being born really helped bridge the gap between Besant Nagar and Foster City. What's more, my jet lag proved useful, I was ready at the beach when it was time for the sun to rise.

Chennai

San Francisco

Kannadasan had this to say about the Sun:-

You are the mother who embraces with a thousand arms,
You provide by revealing your radiant face, thus are a divine father
You bear the blazing fire within and give us the essence, thus you are a teacher,
You embrace the lowly and the mighty equally; you are more than a mother, you are God

I would like to add another line:-

I may travel to the other side of the world, but you are still there for me, thus you are my Friend, you are Mitra

The Sage and the Egg

2011-12-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a story about Ramana Maharishi.. and how I relate to it..

It was the early hours of the morning in the Hall of Sri Bhagavan. He had had His bath, and now went to the farther end of the Hall to take His towel that hung from a horizontally suspended bamboo, at one end of which a sparrow had built her nest and laid therein three or four eggs.

In the process of taking His towel Sri Bhagavan's hand came against the nest, which shook violently, so that one of the eggs dropped down. In this way the egg was cracked; Sri Bhagavan was taken aback, aghast. He cried out to Madhavan, the personal attendant. "Look, look what I have done today!" So saying, He took the cracked egg in His hand looked at it with His tender eyes, and exclaimed: "Oh, the poor mother will be so sorrow-stricken, perhaps angry with me also, at my causingthe destruction of her expected little one! Can the cracked eggshell be pieced together again? Let us try!"

So saying, He took a piece of cloth, wetted it, wrapped it around the broken egg, and put it back in the mother's nest. Every three hours He would take out the cracked egg, remove the cloth, place the egg on His roseate palm, and gaze at it with His tender eyes for minutes together.

What was He really doing at this time? How can we say? Was He sending with those wonderful looks of gentle Grace life-giving beams into the cracked egg, putting ever newer warmth and life into it? That is a mystery none can solve. Yet He kept on saying: "Let the crack be healed! Cannot this be hatched even now? Let the little one come from this broken egg!"

This anxious concern and tenderness of Sri Maharshi continued from day to day for about a week. So the fortunate egg lay in the nest with its wet bandage cloth, only to be fondled by Sri Maharshi with divine touch and benign look. On the seventh day, He takes out the egg, and with the astonishment of a schoolboy announces: "Look what a wonder! The crack has closed,and so the mother will be happy and will hatch her egg after all! My God has freed me from the sin of causing the loss of a life. Let us wait patiently for the blessed young one to come out!"

A few more days pass, and at length one fine morning Bhagavan finds the egg has been hatched1 and the little bird has come out. With gleeful smiling face radiant with the usual light, He takes the child in His hand, caresses it with lips, stroking it with His soft hand, and passes it on for all the bystanders to admire. He receives it back at last into His own hands, and is so happy that one little germ of life has been able to evolve in spite of the unhappy accident to it in the embryo.

I don't relate to this story as a religious parable. I feel miracles are self defeating and destroy the very point of the message that they intend to convey. E.g. If Jesus really knew that he was the son of God and that Heaven was waiting for him, what was the big deal with that 1 day of torture and 3 days of hell? Similarly, in the Tulasidas Ramayana, it is not the real Sita who gets abducted, but a "Chaya Sita". What is the point of the whole story then?

If Ramanar did have miraculous life giving powers and the prescience to know that the fledgling will be alright, what is the point of this story?

What I can relate to here, is Ramanar's very human dilema and his relief. I wouldn't say unknowingly, but I have hurt people unintentionally. Sometimes, I can rectify my mistake. But sometimes, no matter how much I brood, it becomes beyond my ability to fix it. When nature finally heals the problem in its own way, the relief is also exceptional.

End of 2010

2010-12-31T22:43:00.000-08:00

1. TKD: Yellow to Green Senior.

2. Learnt Windsurfing.

3. Learnt Breast Stroke.

4. Switched to Walmart.com, +10k hike

Not bad :)

Gratitude

2009-08-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Thus speaks the celebrated Sankara in his Viveka Chudamani or "Jewel Crest of Discrimination":-

For all souls, a human birth is difficult to obtain,
more so is a male body;
rarer than that is Brahminhood;
rarer still is the attachment to the path of Vedas;
higher than this is erudition in the scriptures;
discrimination between the Self and not-Self,
Realisation,
and continuing in a state of identity with the Supreme Soul
– these come next in order.
Not to be attained except through the well-earned merits of a billion births.

Being the person that I am, I cannot agree with most of these words. But my agreement with spirit of these words is as profound as my disagreement with its manifestation. There must be some fundamental purpose to existence from which all other mundane purposes derive. Having an aptitude to discover that purpose and being equipped to go on that quest are indeed things for which one needs to be extremely grateful.

So, here is my version of the opening verse in the Chudamani:-

It is one of the greatest possible gifts to take shape in this Universe as a sentient being;
Even greater, is the mind that stares back at the Universe and wonders at the meaning of it all, ;
If that mind embarks on a quest, unimprisoned by propaganda and self serving reasoning, that is even greater;
If at the end of such a quest, this fundamental purpose is found to not exist and hence all mundane purposes seem superficial, then pretending that there is indeed a grand purpose and enthusiastically continuing with life is the greatest of all..

No Mind..

2009-06-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

I just completed an online course to keep a speeding ticket from appearing on my driving record. The course does have its merits and I did learn a few things from it. They explain a lot of rules and go through the common mistakes that people make while driving, but I feel they missed out on something important, Self Analysis. After all, each person should know what kind of mistakes he or she usually makes. Recognizing the pattern and correcting it should be advised by the course. So, here is what I do wrong.

At times, the mind becomes too preoccupied with something that is not connected to driving. I tend to go into an autopilot mode in which I don't proactively look for signs and signals, but just follow the herd i.e. take cues from other cars. When there are no other cars to give cues or at times when they give wrong cues I tend to make mistakes.

E.g in a red signal stop, I was in the right most lane and there was a car in front of me. The driver in that car wanted to turn right when it was sage, but I had to go straight. When that car turned right, I thought it was time to move and drove into the middle of the road before realizing my mistake in alarm. At times, during the night, When there are no other cars stopped in a red signal, I have had difficulty realising that it was a red signal and I needed to stop. I have been inattentive while backing i.e reversing. This is again because, there was no one else doing the same.

The remedy is to never go on this autopilot mode. The conscious mind should always be actively thinking about driving safety. My mind shouldn't get carried away by the music, it shouldn't be worried about work, it shouldn't be trying to solve any problems. It should be present right there on the road, clear and calm. All perception, no thoughts.. Is this what they call "No Mind"?

Wind

2009-06-12T17:07:00.001-07:00

It rhymes, but lacks rhythm.. Still working on it..

One with the blooms at times I am,
one with their pleasing scent;

I give the slip to those towering doors,
always broken, always unbent;

Refreshing scent of the earth I bring,
Joyous news of the rain I bring;

But haven't I spread the stench of filth?
Now, is there a way to rescind?

Yet, that which blows, has to blow,
for, I am the mighty wind..

Ganapathy Set..

2009-06-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

I recently registerd in kiva.org and was all excited about my loans to enterprenuers in developing nations. Here is an interesting conversation about the thing..

10:28 PM Pallavi: so wht was the micro fin thing u sent me
u involved wih tht?
me: yeah.. just lent money to ppl
10:29 PM have always had a romantic notion of farmers
and old style shopkeepers
so lent them some money..
10:30 PM Pallavi: awesome
gd fr u!
and have u earned back a share of ur invstmnt?
wht have u invested in?
me: if you mean have they repayed the loan??
no..
10:31 PM Pallavi: no as in dont u get a share of their profits or smthing like VC?
or is it just simple loan system
me: actually I didn't bother to find out...
:)
10:32 PM I had heard of Muhamad Yunus
so just readily jumped in..
and its just a couple of hundred dollars..
10:33 PM Pallavi: :)
rich NRI
but gd yaar
nice to see smone doing smthng like this
me: indeed.. http://www.kiva.org/lender/gany22
Pallavi: did u get to pick who got ur loan?
me: yeah
10:35 PM one was a bee farmer in the temperate hills of azerbaijan..
how romantic
lemme give him 50 bucks
10:36 PM Pallavi: :)
me: now here is an old lady with a cabbage patch in cambodia..
isn't that where Angkor is??
k.. another 50..
10:37 PM another 50 for a shopkeeper in Togo..
10:38 PM me: sick of the supermarkets... the smell of a lil grocery shop
usually smells of sugar
and of jute rope
10:39 PM brings back childhood memories...
so that's the way the 50 went..
Pallavi: :)
i like how u picked

Anxiety...

2008-05-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

How does one describe anxiety? Found a new job at Yahoo!..Put your home in a box and move, find a new home, find new friends and live up to Yahoo!, its stalwart programmers and suite of cutting edge technologies. Here is where i want to throw the lines from Ernst Hemmingway's Old man and the Sea:

"The punishment of the hook is nothing. The punishment of hunger, and that he is against something that he does not comprehend, is everything."

I hope that the "he does not" is not really a "he cannot"...

An Ode to Solitude?

2008-03-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

In one of my previous posts I had brought up the idea that the very objective of beauty is the beholder. I will be revisiting that idea in this post. I came across Alexander Pope's poem, "An Ode to Solitude". I enjoyed reading it but I can't help thinking that the very idea of an ode to solitude is self contradictory. If there is indeed bliss in not expressing anything to anyone then why put that in a poem? Wouldn't the greatest tribute to solitude be not saying anything at all?

Here is how the poem goes..

Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

And he closes by saying..

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye

Each poem that Alexander Pope wrote is a stone in his memory, immortalizing him. And on one of those he says doen't need any.

Am I rich?

2007-12-28T05:17:00.000-08:00

I used to collect coins from time to time in my childhood. Even though I gradually lost interest in the hobby, the collection has survived, safely stowed away in a shelf in my parents’ house. For quite sometime, I had wanted to transfer those coins to an album because keeping them all together in a box was causing some kind of a metal-to-metal reaction, corroding them. I managed to find time for that in this India trip and here is what I found while reorganizing the collection:

· I have 180 coins filling 2 full albums
· There are about a dozen coins form the British Indian Empire, all having King George on them.
· One coin that even precedes the crown era, issued by the East India Company in 1835.
· There are coins issued by the princely states of Travancore and Bahawalpur (now in Pakistan) and a coin from Portuguese Goa.
· There are about 3 dozen coins from European countries that don’t exist anymore like the Soviet Union, East Germany and Yugoslavia.
· A couple of dozen coins from countries that now use the Euro like France and Greece.
Sadly, the 20 or so American coins that are a part of the collection now seem boring and valueless. Anyway, kudos to the childhood me for this admirable collection and now an adult thought; how much is all this worth? Am I rich?

My Deep Ancestry

2007-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

The Genographic Project is a combined effort by the National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells and the Waitt Family Foundation to understand the human journey. Now, you can send them your DNA from a cheek swab and they'll tell you where you come from; how did you get to where you live and which places did your ancestors travel through before they reached where you live.

I sent them my DNA and the results are mind blowing. They have traced out my paternal lineage all the way to the first ancestors of all humans . These guys lived in Africa 60 -70,000 years ago.

What is interesting?

1.My Ancestors, among the very first Indians: My ancestry is characterized by the M69 genetic marker. This lineage represents one of the very earliest pre-historic migrations into India. My ancestor who gave rise to this lineage was born 30,000 years ago in India or in the closest part of Central Asia.

2. Uniquely Indian Lineage: This line of descent is uniquely Indian, i.e. it is rarely found outside India. This M69 marker is found in particularly high frequencies among the South Indians, 20-25%.

3. First settlers of India proper: The M69 people along with the M20 people were the first to settle India in a big way. The ancestors of the Australian Aborigines(M130) preceded both groups, but since their's was a coastal migration, they left behind small coastal communities only.

How do they know?

They know because they can read my Y chromosome.

The genetic code of a person greatly differs from either of his parents because he or she gets 50% of his DNA from one parent and the rest from another. This genetic code cannot be used to determine deep ancestry.

What is required is a code that remains pretty much the same from generation to generation but shows small variations over hundreds of generations. The Y chromosome and the Mitochondrial DNA are of this type. The former gets transferred from father to son without change and the latter from mother to progeny of either sex. They change occassionally due to random mutations.

These mutations will act as genetic markers or id cards. If I develop such a marker, all my descendants along male lines will have those markers and can be traced back to me even after hundreds of generations.

The people at the Genographic project identify these markers and try to identify the geographical locations where these markers first appear. That way, they can trace the migration routes.

To know more, goto

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic

My Markers

The markers in my Y-Chromosome are M168, M89 and M69.

The M69 appears in the background of the M89. The marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. The man who gave rise to this marker was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.

M168 is the marker of my earliest ancestor. This man, who gave rise to the first genetic marker in my lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, most likely around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.

My Thoughts

It is overwhelming. My ancestors were among the first people to call India their home. My line has a 30,000 year old relationship with that country. If a new generation comes up every 30 years, then this is a bond spanning across a thousand generations. Is it going to end with me?

That is really overwhelming.

Temple Trees

2007-01-07T05:20:00.001-08:00

There is a temple and an attached garden in my residential colony in Chennai. In this garden there are 3 magnificent trees. One is a Banyan tree and the other two are Peepal trees (Sacred Fig, Ficus religiosa). Not only do they possess a majestic beauty by themselves but they create a mystical ambience of a temple hidden in a jungle. I have seen them as saplings and seen them survive torrential rains and the vandalism of brats like me. I visit and admire these trees each time I go home and even though I have done nothing to care for them, their towering growth fills me with pride.

In that very same garden I get to see an example of the futility of trying to convince a person who has an illusion of knowledge. While planting the Peepals the gardener "married" them off to Neem (Margosa, Azadirachta Indica) trees by planting a Peepal and a Neem side by side. I had tried telling him then that it would hamper the growth of both trees, but he would hear none of that. He knew what he was doing, following his folk tradition and how could that be wrong. Though the Neem isn't as big or tall a tree like the Banyan or the Peepal, it can grow to admirably large size if left to itself. But over here, the Neems have been outcompeted and crushed by the giant trees. In the fifteen or so years since they have been planted, the Neems should be looking like full grown trees. Instead, they look like they are some kind of disease afflicted branches of the Peepals. It is a little saddenning to see that the incorrigible side of people has turned what should have been a mighty independent entity in its own right into a stunted attachment to another.

The Objective Four Hundred

2006-11-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

I have noticed that an artwork can appeal to me in two possible ways. It could take my breath away by its sheer granduer or it could be the subtlety of the message that is appealing; i.e it allows the onlooker to relate in more than one way. When presented with this freedom, things become a lot more interesting to the observer because in a sense, he participates in creating that artwork. If we do have to classify one as subjective and the other as objective, then an artwork focussing on subtlety has to be of the subjective kind. This post is about an instance where I have taken this freedom though it wasn't probably meant to be given.

I was going through the english translation of the Tamil anthology "Pura-naa-nooru", titled "The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom" by Hank Heifetz. To quote the Wikipedia, the Purananooru is a collection of 400 poems that deal with the Puram (புறம்)(external or objective) concepts of life such as war, politics, wealth, as well as aspects of every-day living. Antithetically, the "Aka-naa-nooru" is a collection of 400 poems that deal with the Akam(அகம்) - Subjective, dealing with matters of the heart and human emotions.

In the preface to his book Hank Heifetz quotes the 375th poem of the Purananooru:

"May you live long in this world as a refuge for poets! Without doubt if you were not in this world, it would be empty, and poets would not endure"

Here the original poet is most probably praising a generous patron, a King or a wealthy merchant who has rewarded him. However, since the target of this adulation isn't explicitly mentioned, I can take the liberty of assuming that the "you" in the poem refers not to a specific patron, but to the very idea of an admiring audience, that fulfills the purpose of his poem by experiencing it. Taken that way, it is an expression of gratitude from the creator of beauty, for eyes existing to behold the beauty. Without minds that relish the poem, the poet has no refuge, his world is empty.

So by being a little subjective, I've ended up making the Objective Four Hundred pay a tribute to the onlooker, the source of all subjectivity.