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---There is no power I envy so much, --- said the divinity student, --- as that of seeing analogies and making comparisons. I don't understand how it is that some minds are continually coupling thoughts or objects that seem not in the least related to each other, until all at once they are put in a certain light and you wonder that you did not always see that they were as like as a pair of twins. It appears to me a sort of miraculous gift...
...Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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In our school we had to compulsorily read and mug up selected verses from two famous Telugu Shatakams (each a century of pearls of wisdom). These are: Vemana Shatakam and Sumati Shatakam.
The beauty of these verses is that they are full of similes and metaphors. I remember most of them for their striking analogies. In particular I recall this verse often since it describes my great good fortune pithily:
It refers to our folklore that, during the midnights when the Swati (Arcturus) constellation is at the zenith, oysters in the sea come up to the surface and open their mouths waiting for a drop of rain to fall in and quench their thirst. As soon as a rain drop falls, the oyster sinks into the sea and, in the words of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, goes into a meditative state. A couple of months later, the lucky rain drop gets converted into a lovely pearl. The idea is that there are millions of rain drops that miss their targets and get lost at sea, unlike the lucky ones (like me getting into IIT KGP).
I also recall this Shakespeare simile in 'As You Like It' that Father taught us from our English Selections:
The beauty of these verses is that they are full of similes and metaphors. I remember most of them for their striking analogies. In particular I recall this verse often since it describes my great good fortune pithily:
Chippa badda swati chinuku mutyam baaye
Neeta badda chinuku neeta kalise
Praptamunna chota phalamela tappu ra
Viswadabhi rama vinura vema
It refers to our folklore that, during the midnights when the Swati (Arcturus) constellation is at the zenith, oysters in the sea come up to the surface and open their mouths waiting for a drop of rain to fall in and quench their thirst. As soon as a rain drop falls, the oyster sinks into the sea and, in the words of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, goes into a meditative state. A couple of months later, the lucky rain drop gets converted into a lovely pearl. The idea is that there are millions of rain drops that miss their targets and get lost at sea, unlike the lucky ones (like me getting into IIT KGP).
I also recall this Shakespeare simile in 'As You Like It' that Father taught us from our English Selections:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything
And when I got hooked to Jeeves Stories at IITKGP in the 1960s, I was amazed at the twist that PGW (the King of Similes) gave it in the words of his Bertie Wooster:
"He found sermons in books and stones in running brooks...or the other way round"
Elections in India spawn their own similes. The one that I recall from a previous election was the dig by our Italian Madam calling our Damoji (PM by Monday the 26th), "Maut ka Saudagar". I didn't know much Hindi when I first heard the word Saudagar at KGP when our South Indian Brahmin Dream Girl had her debut in a Bollywood film titled: "Sapnon ka Saudagar", till my UP friend translated it to me as: "Merchant of Dreams".
That film sent our Lalujee into raptures and he came up with his own dream simile:
"I will make the roads of Bihar as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks"
Some cheek that!
The Dream Girl cursed him for taunting her, and her Brahminical Curse has taken effect at last...she is now a Lok Sabha MP from, of all places, UP, while her cow-belt fan is in and out of the cooler, and his wife and daughter, Rabri and Misa, lost their elections sorely from Lalujee's strongholds. By the way, the infant Misa was named for the 'Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA)' using which the grannie of our P. Vadra sent Lalujee to jail during her infamous Emergency...another Lalu simile there...looks like jug is not new to him.
And then our Damoji recently called the Congress Election Symbol: "Khooni Panja". This phrase was clear enough to me except that it recalled from my memory a Congress Minister from Bengal whose title was also Panja (Ajit). I asked my Bong friends at KGP if Panja meant a hand like the Congress symbol. Some said no, not at all, it meant a (wooden) chappal. I don't think so but...beware of Bengali language though!
That brings us to the recent simile (or metaphor, it doesn't matter) lashed out by our Bong didi aimed at our Damoji: "Butcher of Gujerat". She is keeping quiet, for the moment, but I was wondering why the Butchers Union of Bengal (BUB) were not up in arms for this bloody simile. If it were AP, they would have taken up their blood-soaked knives which are their source of livelihood and marched to the Writers Building. By the way, Bengal (the other one) had its own Butcher during my time there:
...As a Commander of Eastern Command, (then) Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan was the architect and top planner of Operation Searchlight.He is still remembered as the "Butcher of Bengal" for his ruthlessness against separatists and brutality inflicted in the erstwhile East Pakistan, in the remaining Pakistan. He got his first Butcher title "Butcher of Balochistan" because of his infamous atrocities in Balochistan in 1970...
Didi was in her school uniform then and not yet into her trademark tant saris...madchen (with an umlaut on 'a')...not yet a frau.
Finally our Italian lady (who I am told was herself serving tea in London restaurants before her pearly marriage) came up with this stark figure recently: "Zahar ki Kheti"
I am told it means a field (or fields) of poison. I had known the simile: 'Pot of Poison' applied to Lady Macbeth-types but 'Fields of Poison' are new to me. We did read in our school that there were, in olden times, what were called Visha Kanyas (Damsels of Poison) who were bred and sent to kill enemy kings. Apparently from their very infancy, the chosen girls were fed tiny amounts of poison and the doses were gradually increased so that, when they grow into beautiful and inviting damsels, anyone who touches them intimately meets his death instantly. Apparently Visha Kanyas themselves grow immune to their own poison...like our deadly South Indian scorpions that don't get killed by the poison in their tails but kill others they choose to sting.
...Posted by Ishani
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