Now & Anon

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My Uncle (85), who translated Gita into simple and lovely Telugu verses, shlok by shlok, and who has an envious sense of sound, once told me that 'anon' is a word he first saw in my 'outpourings' (as my B-i-L dubs them); and loved it.

I guess each of us has our own likes and dislikes for words. We are a verbocracy (sorry for that ugly word).

Whenever I see the word 'eclectic', I am stung to the quick. And today I read that word twice in DC and also its noun form 'eclecticity' (which is not there in Webster).

As a rule I avoid baby talk. As kids grow up they have their own way of repeating our words and corrupting them in the process. For instance, lisping 'daddy' as 'danny'. There is a strong tendency in parents to fall into the trap of saying 'danny' to them instead of insisting on 'daddy'.

But I have made an exception for Ishani. In the lovely Gated Township we live in here there is a kids' park which is boldly labeled: 'Kids Play Area' (speed limit: 10 kmph), to which she loves to be taken daily in the evenings.

And she calls it: 'Kitapiya' which to me sounds much more sensible; it is too much to expect any kid that is taken there to call it by its high-sounding name: 'Kids Play Area'.

So, 'Kitapiya' it is for all of us.

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I guess I should take a copyright or patent or IPR or whatever on what I write in my blogs.

There is a long Editorial today which is practically the 'essence' of what I have been talking about recently about our Indian Education System in:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/06/pullout-blog.html

and later posts.

On the other hand it feels good to be 'seconded'.

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Apart from Saints and Communists, most of us do have our bias in various matters despite our boasts to the contrary.

MSS at KGP was an unshaven but non-practicing Sardarjee. But he was very simple and reminds me of our PM (MMS). His views were catholic and he used to joke at his community's touchiness on various secular matters. Scientific in his thinking.

But after the Operation Blue Star in 1984 on the Golden Temple he was very upset and emotional and was practically reduced to tears.

And he confessed to me that it is impossible for most of us to deny our roots...they are too deep.

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One very talented Material Scientist quit his cushy job in England where he stayed for 30 odd years and chose to return to India and join IIT KGP.

On being asked why, he said he took the decision when his 8-year-old daughter one day returned from school and asked him:

"Dad, everyone says you are a great scientist; can't you invent a cream which will turn my skin white?"

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I felt a lot of reverse discrimination due to my Brahmin caste in my student days in AP and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I shifted to Bengal where, Sunanda Datta-Ray once said: "Caste doesn't matter in Bengal" to the owner of The Hindu where it is joked that only Tamilian Brahmins used to be employed half a century ago.

But I must admit that when I read about so many Babas nowadays, I feel drawn to know which caste they belong to!

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Here is Boston's Autocrat talking frankly about it a century and half ago on Sepoy Mutiny or The First War of Independence (take your pick):

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- Who was that person that was so abused some time since for saying
that in the conflict of two races our sympathies naturally go with
the higher?  No matter who he was.  Now look at what is going on in
India,--a white, superior "Caucasian" race, against a dark-skinned,
inferior, but still "Caucasian" race,--and where are English and
American sympathies?  We can't stop to settle all the doubtful
questions; all we know is, that the brute nature is sure to come
out most strongly in the lower race, and it is the general law that
the human side of humanity should treat the brutal side as it does
the same nature in the inferior animals,--tame it or crush it.  The
India mail brings stories of women and children outraged and
murdered; the royal stronghold is in the hands of the babe-killers.
England takes down the Map of the World, which she has girdled with
empire, and makes a correction thus:  [DELHI] Dele.  The civilized
world says, Amen

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