Mice Speak: Living is Obligatory; so, too, is Dying.

The NYT editorial on June 5 2009:

"Over the years, scientists have developed many strains of genetically modified mice, many of which incorporate human versions of similar mouse genes. But there is something different in a recent experiment performed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Scientists there have created a strain of mouse that contains the human variant of a gene, called FOXP2, associated with several critical tasks, including the human capacity for language.

What makes this different is how fundamentally human — and unmouse-like — language really is. Something essential to us, something defining in our species, has been implanted in a rodent.

FOXP2 happens to work pretty well in mice...

...And there is another question hovering over this experiment: Just how alien to themselves do these transgenic mice become? To that question, scientists are bound to find no answers, until, perhaps, mice can speak for themselves."

बा. सी. मर्ढेकर, # २१ , "मर्ढेकरांची कविता" (B S Mardhekar, "Mardhekar's Poetry", 1959)

पिपांत मेले ओल्या उंदिर;
माना पडल्या, मुरगळल्याविण;
ओठांवरती ओठ मिळाले;
माना पडल्या, आसक्तीविण.
गरिब बिचारे बिळांत जगले,
पिपांत मेले उचकी देउन;
दिवस सांडला घाऱ्या डोळीं
गात्रलिंग अन् धुवून घेउन.

जगायची पण सक्ती आहे;
मरायची पण सक्ती आहे.

उदासतेला जहरी डोळे,
काचेचे पण;

मधाळ पोळें
ओठांवरती जमलें तेंही
बेकलाइटी, बेकलाइटी!
ओठांवरती ओठ लागले;
पिपांत उंदिर न्हाले ! न्हाले !

Translated from the Marathi by Vilas Sarang विलास सारंग:

Mice Died in the Wet Barrel

Inside the waterlogged drum, the mice are dead,
Their necks hang, wrung by nobody.

The necks hang, and lips meet lips
Without desire.

Poor bastards lived in holes,
And, with a hiccup, died in the drum.

Day spilled into gray eyes,
rinsed their limbs and genitals.

Living is obligatory;
so, too, is dying.

Melancholy has disquieting eyes;
they are glass ones, though.

Even the honeycomb
brimming on their lips
is merely foam rubber!

Lips nuzzling lips:
O the mice are douched in the drum!
the mice are douched!



Artist: Paul Noth, The New Yorker, June 8 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #196

My caption:

“The poet is right. They are saying: Living is obligatory; so, too, is dying.”

Ian Chappell, Isn't this a kinda Tampa?

I always suspected that many Australians were racial. The way many Indians are casteist.

Sure, the official Indian delegation again blocked all mention of caste at the UN conference against racism in Durban in April 2009. But we all know they are the same.

e-Media in India are reporting every single violence against any non-white immigrant in Australia. The Asian Age reports on June 3, 2009: “Crimes against Dalits on the rise across country. A total of 06,942 incidents of murder, rape and other crimes were reported in 2008 in UP.”

Let us leave India out at the moment.

Will Australians stand up against this hate in their country?

I am counting on Ian Chappell, the best cricket commentator by some distance for my taste.

In Ashley Mallett’s book “Chappelli Speaks Out” (2005), there is a chapter titled “Tampa and the 1968 Australians.” It talks about Chappell’s involvement in social causes such as the campaign against refugee detention centres.

IAN CHAPPELL on Tampa:

“Anyhow, I'm living this reasonably quiet life and suddenly the 'Tampa' crisis had blown up. I'm sitting there in front of the television news and watching all those people on the 'Tampa', and I'm thinking, "This is terrible. "No matter what you think about protecting the Australian borders, these are human beings and you can't just treat them like that .I was getting really angry.

The games that I've played in my life are very good tutors in teaching you what is fair and what is unfair. And that was offended by what I saw with the Tampa crisis. I just thought, That's not fair. In cricketing parlance, it was like cheating -that I felt that those people, the refugees, were being cheated out of a fair go. Anyhow, I'm railing at the television set, and my wife, Barbara-Ann, she said, You know, bad things happen when good people do nothing. And that sort of jolted me a little bit. I thought, "I'm not gonna do a lot of good sitting railing at the television set…”



Artist: Sudhir Tailang, The Asian Age, June 2 2009

Journey of Sharad Pawar from May 1999 to May 2009

The letter sent by Sharad Pawar to Sonia Gandhi on May 15, 1999:

“…But our inspiration, our soul, our honour, our pride, our dignity, is rooted in our soil. It has to be of this earth. Soniaji you have became a part of us because you have all along respected this. We therefore find it strange that you should allow yourself to forget it at this crucial juncture. It is not possible that a country of 980 million, with a wealth of education, competence and ability, can have anyone other than an Indian, born of Indian soil, to head its government.

Some of us have tried to initiate and open broader discussions on this issue within the party. It is an issue which. affects not just the security, the economic interest and the international image of India, but hits at the core pride of every Indian. Unfortunately this initiative has been thwarted at every stage…”

p.s. The number 980 million now stands considerably upgraded to 1,130 million!



Artist: Danny Shanahan, The New Yorker, June 1 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #195

My caption:

Sonia: “Sharad-ji, Have you started using western motifs just to please me? What happened to inspiration, soul, honour, pride, dignity that are rooted in your soil? But I will be happy only when you merge your party with the Congress.”

Severed Heads: Govind Pant Bundela, V Prabhakaran and near miss Nguyen Van Thieu

p.s After I published following post on May 29 2009, this was in the papers on June 25 2009:

"Despite pledges to protect South Vietnam, former US President Richard Nixon privately vowed to "cut off the head" of its leader-Nguyen Van Thieu-unless he backed peace with the Communist North, tapes released on Tuesday showed..."

One more fan of severed head.

Post that was published on May 29, 2009:

William Faulkner: “The past is not dead; it is not even past.”

The Sri Lankan military has released pictures of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran which it says prove conclusively that he is dead.

Those parental-guidance-suggested pictures are insufferable.

M.R. Narayan Swamy says:

“…The Indian Army once intercepted a wireless message from him (Velupillai Prabhakaran ) asking a colleague to kill two rival Tamils and deliver their severed heads to him…”

(“How a guerrilla chief grew drunk on blood”, Asian Age, May 20, 2009)

‘Severed-heads’ have always been with us. They brought another sorry episode from history to my mind.

In December 1760, Atai Khan, working on the orders of Ahmad Shah Abdali severed the head of sixty-plus years old Govind Ballal Kher aka Govind Pant Bundela, a Subedar of Maratha, and sent it to his boss- Abdali.

Abdali 'presented’ it to the head of Maratha army, Sadashivrao Bhau. This act surely dented the morale of Maratha army badly. On January 14, 1761, it was trounced in the third battle of Panipat, a sort of Vietnam of Maratha empire.

On May 19, 2009, the Sri Lankan military was adjusting the corpse for cameras to photograph the head that looked severely damaged, if not almost severed.

Atheism: Tukaram, Simone Weil, India's Ministers

On May 22 2009, six ministers out of twenty in India's latest central cabinet did not take oath in the name of God .

They are in excellent company.

तुकाराम Tukaram (1608-1650):

"आहे ऐसा देव वदवावी वाणी । नाही ऐसा मनीं अनुभवावा ।" (4205)

Forgive my translation:

"say in speech god exists, experience in mind he doesn't."

Simone Weil (1909-1943):

"An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.”

What did Mamata Banerjee Burn Down?

Humour always was an integral part of Indian elections.

Even when the Congress party was sweeping election after election in Southern Maharashtra, as a school/college boy, I was entertained by graffitis, songs, handbills, posters and slogans.

Cow-dung (more of buffalo actually) was thrown at the rival's posters and graffitis. It was considered the ultimate humiliation , next only to the loss in election.

Jan Sangh candidate usually lost his deposit and his posters/graffitis collected a lot of dung in every election but the party showed more tenacity than what it shows today. Its leaders were incorruptible. They reached every middle-class home (In Pune, I haven't met a single BJP candidate of my constituency in last 10 years). Even Congress leaders in power that included giants like Vasantdada Patil वसंतदादा पाटील were very accessible to ordinary people. There was a good fight on display.

When Bapusaheb Jamdar (of Congress?) lost an election, people shouted: "पैसा पसरला, बापू घसरला." ("Money was spread but Bapu slipped over it.")

Of late in Pune, there have been almost no posters, no songs, no graffitis during elections.

Therefore, I was thrilled to see following graffiti.

In the picture, instead of a factory, I see oversized egos of Prakash Karat, stock-market-bhad-me-jay A.B. Bardhan, D Raja and other sundry communists like Mohammed Salim.


Anti-industry: CPI(M) graffiti in Nandigram features Mamata

Artist: Anon

Picture Courtesy: Sandipan Chatterjee, Outlook, May 18 2009

Lalu, Mulayam, Paswan, Amar, Deve On All Fours

A G Noorani writes in Frontline May 22, 2009:

“…Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru wrote on February 20, 1941. He added: “Those in high authority in India and in England think now that Congress have dealt a mortal blow to the very spirit of democracy in India, a view with which I am not wholly in disagreement. Indeed, I may say that my criticism against the Congress during the years during which it was in power was that it was building up its strength as a party dictatorship. It was not interested in other matters or in developing a true democratic spirit. It was intolerant of criticism and difference of opinion. It alienated large sections of people. The applause and the shouting of the so-called masses went to the head of the Congressmen…. If the rest of the country has got to suffer, it must pay the penalty for its lack of courage… ”



Artist: Leo Cullum, The New Yorker, May 25 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #194

My caption:

“Lalu, Mulayam, Paswan, Amar, Deve- who ever you are- I appreciate your efforts to prove your loyalty to Soniaji. Particularly, your this posture has been historically very appealing to the Congress honchos. But the answer is still NO.”

Manmohan Now Needs No Refresher Course in Getting Puppeteered

Artist: Victoria Roberts, The New Yorker, May 18 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest 193

My caption:

Sonia: “Manmohan, remove those strings. You are already trained for my act and now you don’t need any refresher course in getting puppeteered by outsiders."

Water Saw Her Lord and Blushed: Dnyaneshwar and Richard Crashaw

Dnyaneshwari ज्ञानेश्वरी(c 1290) is the first great book written in a modern European or an Indo-Aryan language.

Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (c 1308-1321), Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” (1380-1400), Sarala Dasa’s “Mahabharat” in Oriya (second half of the 15th century), Madhava Kandali’s “Ramayana” in Assamese (14th century), Tulsidas’s Ramacharitamanas in Hindi (1574-1577) all came later.

Dnyaneshwar ज्ञानेश्वर (1275-1296) writes:

"आणि गंगा शंभुचां माथां। संकोचली जेवि पार्था।
तेवि मान्यपदे सर्वथा। लाजनें जें॥" (16-203)

It describes the feelings of river Ganga as she landed on Lord Shiva's head on her way to the earth from heaven. She first felt very shy and then she blushed.

Cana is best known as the place where, according to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus performed his first public miracle, the turning of a large quantity of water into wine at a wedding feast.

Richard Crashaw(c.1613-1649), English poet, describes it thus:

"The conscious water saw its God, and blushed (original in Latin: Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit)."

'Ganga' in Bengali, Art by S S Havaldar

courtesy: Amar Chitra Katha
 

Even in Throwing Shoes We Indians Only Imitate

I have lost the count of number of shoes that were thrown at various public figures in India over last several weeks.

My 15-year-old son recently observed: Even in this we are copycats.

Wardrobes of India’s glamorous ramp-walkers began to malfunctions only after Janet Jackson incident.

The most popular programs on Marathi TV are often where young singers, even school-going kids, sing old Marathi songs, just imitating the original singers.

Muzaffar Ali (The Times of India, May 3, 2009):

“…The West invaded India with technology and ideas through multinationals and their hidden persuaders, the advertising agencies. With this came a new form of entertainment — the movies. Hollywood began to make inroads in the metros and small-town India and Bollywood emerged as a hybrid product — aping the West but with one eye on mofussil audiences. In the process, we created one of the world’s largest markets for the Hindi film product. This became more and more formidable, more monolithic, typecast, formula-based and predictable. It promoted obscurantism, violence, vulgarity, vengeance and ultimately, a male-dominated one-dimensional and over-the-top form of celluloid expression…

… First, we need to universalize ourselves. We need to find our roots.”



Artist: Jack Ziegler, The New Yorker, May 11 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #192

My caption:

“Has a guest on his show kissed Jay Leno on the lips or had a wardrobe malfunction?” (A question that was asked on India’s talk show)