Jyotimgachchami

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I now come to the end of what was threatening to be an unending Tamaso Ma Series.

I feel rather nostalgic about it...who could spin a 26-blog series out of an 8-minute 'procedure'? Except crazy 'spin-sters' like me.

Happily, however, Supratim says:

'Both my parents underwent cataract operations in both eyes, but I learnt more about the "procedure" from your tongue-in-cheek "Tamaso Ma" series'

So  I labeled this post: "Jyotimgachchami"

That is MY Sanskrit for:

"I have entered light...from darkness"

I never learned Sanskrit either in school or out of it. Yet I occasionally love to listen to pundits reciting Vedic hymns.

There was a politico recently saying that English is responsible for driving out Indian languages and Indian culture. And bemoaning that there are hardly 30 families who can now converse in Sanskrit.

I know of only one...Saswat told me that he used to listen to his father chatting with his grandfather in Sanskrit...but they are Vedic scholars.

I read that Sanskrit is called the Deva Bhasha (language of gods...rather than of mere mortals like me).

But there are few spoken lingoes in India that have not been spawned by Sanskrit or effected by it. More so the chaste Hindi that the said politico wishes in his heart of hearts that all of us should learn...his tribe tried to impose it on Tamilnadu a half century ago by main force...and lost that state forever to his brand of politics. But I hear Hindi spoken, in their own way, by porters in the Madras Central Station...courtesy the software boom. 

There was also a generation of Bengali youth that were prevented, rather, from learning English at a tender age...by politicos again. With the result that trainloads of youth were traveling to Bangalore from Calcutta to study engineering...in English.

Shakespeare said:

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"

With our politicians, it turns into ashes and immersed here and there in holy waters.

I loved all languages I have heard spoken by rural folks of their region...there is a ring of authenticity and beauty about it. It is perhaps better to leave it there and not try to banish or impose one language or the other on the unwilling.

Coming back to my 'seeing the light', my son took me to the Chief Surgeon after the scheduled week for review. The only thing I complained to him was that the past week had been unbearable for me since I wasn't supposed to read anything at all during that week...but reading some trash or the other is my daily addiction. And the Chief told me that it is only after a month that my vision would stabilize and I could get my new glasses.

Meanwhile, he suggested I try to read with my old glasses. It was troublesome but I mastered the art. And was back to blogging sooner than I feared.

When my son took me to the Chief after the said month for review and new glasses, he said why not wait till he cuts up my other eye too...these docs are clever...

So, my son has tentatively fixed my second eye surgery for September 2.

The care that my son and D-i-L are taking to look after me is exceptional. 

They have empowered me...I can drive, read better, walk without hesitantly probing...and the other night I climbed all of nine floors when our lifts and lights failed. 

This is not a vote of thanks, but I could never afford all that money to splurge, particularly after my wife's prolonged cancer treatment...I never had that kind of money. Nor did my son who was just entering the job market when my wife was taken ill...but for the corporate insurance that my son's employers gifted him.

This cartoon says it all:

 

 http://www.sedonaobserver.com/SiCKOinSedona_000.htm

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