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Law Courts and Parliaments are famous for their adjournments. They adjourn as often as they can.
Recently a court of law, supposed to be acting as a fast-track court, convicted a handful of gang-rapers on a Tuesday; and, while the nation was waiting with bated breath, adjourned saying that the sentence will be announced 'tomorrow', Wednesday, at 11 AM. And folks were glued to their TV sets from Wednesday morning, only to be told by the evening that more time is needed for 'hearing the arguments'. And the somewhat foregone sentence came leisurely on the Friday evening.
Our Parliament has more adjournments than working hours, except when all our lawmakers...the government and the entire opposition...are unanimous on an issue...like raising their pay, or protection from the courts.
Talking of lawyers and judges, my dear wife dumped many good-looking aspiring brides for our son. The only fault of the bride was that she had lawyers or policemen as close relatives. I came to know that her allergy was because a cousin of hers had a lawyer as well as a police officer as brothers to his wife...and, together, they kept this poor chap on tenterhooks...one threatening to drag him to court and the other to the police station. So he was like a nut in the nutcracker.
Ultimately my wife got a bride she fully approved of, since the lucky bride had only teachers on her side. And teachers are harmless...at best they can threaten to teach a lesson, but you can always bunk classes.
Talking of teachers, my IAS B-i-L, whenever he gets a chance or makes up one, passes demeaning comments on teachers, knowing full well that I and my Father are both teachers...no longer though. I used to keep quiet out of habit, but nowadays I don't miss a chance to poke fun at the IAS as a profession in my blog...they don't seem to read it, alas!
My friend's father who worked in the courts of law advised his son never to go anywhere near a court of law...he must be knowing why. I guess police officers also give similar advice to their sons. But politicians always wheedle their sons (and daughters) to join politics and serve the nation. One of my uncles who was a famous lawyer advised his son to shift from being a lawyer which is dicey, and join the bench as a judge, which is cakes and ale.
Teachers love teaching anyone but their sons...it is such an intricate relation...both of them know the chinks of the other. But in our Upanishads there are examples of fathers teaching their sons.
One of them, Uddalaka, found that his son, Svetaketu, after getting his degree from the best IIT of those days, had learned next to nothing. And so he himself undertook the task since his son was eager to relearn. And taught him the secret of existence with as many as nine examples till the son said 'nevermore...nevermore'...
Talking of examples, they are the essence of teaching. If you wish your teaching to sink in, you must give as many examples of the theory as you can muster. I sold all my physics books after retirement, but I recall Feynman, in his Lectures, Vol III, had an entire chapter titled: 'Two-State Systems'...and the next chapter was titled: 'More Two-State Systems'...perhaps the next one was: 'Even More Two-State Systems' ;)
The other father-son dialogue was between Varuna and his son Brighu. This time the father asks his son to find out the truth for himself by meditation. And when he returns with a wrong answer, he was asked to come tomorrow after some more meditation. And when he returns again he was asked to go back and do even more meditation...altogether 5 times till the son discovers the truth on his own. The moral of the story seems to be that Assignments are better than Lectures...always providing there is no mass-copying.
When I reached Bengal from AP in 1965, I was flabbergasted with the word for 'tomorrow' in Bengali...'kal'. It took some time for me to tease it out that they say 'kal' for both yesterday and tomorrow. It was as if time had stopped flowing for them and started expanding instead. And they used to say: "What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India will think tomorrow". I don't know how the saying goes in Bengali since tomorrow can also mean yesterday in their lingo.
On the other hand, our Telugu is very rich in specifying time, if nothing else. The series is: atu monna (day before the day before yesterday), monna (day before yesterday), ninna (yesterday), repu (tomorrow), ellundi (day after tomorrow), aavalellundi (day after the day after tomorrow), ataavalellundi (day after the day after the day after tomorrow). I guess they got tired after all this sweating and let it go.
This reminds me of the Shraddha mantras involving pinda-daan and tarpan in our southee brahmins. The pundit rolls out 3 pindas for the ancestors on the male's side and 3 on the females of the lineage. Then he asks us to name the pita (dead father), then pitamaha (grandfather, presuming he too is dead), and prapitamaha (great-grandfather, surely dead). And similarly for the ladies.
This led to a rather amusing incident recently when my son was performing the first death anniversary of his mom. And I was a mute onlooker at the far end of our hall since I was under post-cataract care and so was forbidden to go anywhere near the fumes emanating from the sacrificial fires.
And I suddenly woke up to hear that the Pundit has assumed that my own mom is also in heaven and started giving a pinda for her too. And I had to shout: 'Stop!' And my son explained the goof-up. And the Pundit got up and did praayaschitta (seeking forgiveness by slapping his own cheeks) from my mom, very much alive at Gudur. But then he had rolled out the compulsory 3 pindas. So, he had to find the name for the fourth gen lady of my son...he has exhausted mata, pitamahi (alive and forbidden), and prapitamahi. And I was curious what he would say. And he went as 'Purvaprapitamahi'.
Great!
Coming back to 'tomorrow' I learned that most of the tricky issues in life can be avoided by just saying, with a false smile, "Tomorrow!"
This was what one of our senior professors used to do whenever he was asked a question on Quantum Mechanics. He always had ten or more slips in his shirt pocket and a pen. He would smile pleasingly and fish out a slip and jot down his 'important' question and say to the eager questioner, "Tomorrow!"
That was the end of it since slips are easily lost and there is always a 'day after tomorrow' and the 'day after the day after the day after the day after...' since Time is endless till one retires or dies, happily.
************************************************************************************************************
Recently a court of law, supposed to be acting as a fast-track court, convicted a handful of gang-rapers on a Tuesday; and, while the nation was waiting with bated breath, adjourned saying that the sentence will be announced 'tomorrow', Wednesday, at 11 AM. And folks were glued to their TV sets from Wednesday morning, only to be told by the evening that more time is needed for 'hearing the arguments'. And the somewhat foregone sentence came leisurely on the Friday evening.
Our Parliament has more adjournments than working hours, except when all our lawmakers...the government and the entire opposition...are unanimous on an issue...like raising their pay, or protection from the courts.
Talking of lawyers and judges, my dear wife dumped many good-looking aspiring brides for our son. The only fault of the bride was that she had lawyers or policemen as close relatives. I came to know that her allergy was because a cousin of hers had a lawyer as well as a police officer as brothers to his wife...and, together, they kept this poor chap on tenterhooks...one threatening to drag him to court and the other to the police station. So he was like a nut in the nutcracker.
Ultimately my wife got a bride she fully approved of, since the lucky bride had only teachers on her side. And teachers are harmless...at best they can threaten to teach a lesson, but you can always bunk classes.
Talking of teachers, my IAS B-i-L, whenever he gets a chance or makes up one, passes demeaning comments on teachers, knowing full well that I and my Father are both teachers...no longer though. I used to keep quiet out of habit, but nowadays I don't miss a chance to poke fun at the IAS as a profession in my blog...they don't seem to read it, alas!
My friend's father who worked in the courts of law advised his son never to go anywhere near a court of law...he must be knowing why. I guess police officers also give similar advice to their sons. But politicians always wheedle their sons (and daughters) to join politics and serve the nation. One of my uncles who was a famous lawyer advised his son to shift from being a lawyer which is dicey, and join the bench as a judge, which is cakes and ale.
Teachers love teaching anyone but their sons...it is such an intricate relation...both of them know the chinks of the other. But in our Upanishads there are examples of fathers teaching their sons.
One of them, Uddalaka, found that his son, Svetaketu, after getting his degree from the best IIT of those days, had learned next to nothing. And so he himself undertook the task since his son was eager to relearn. And taught him the secret of existence with as many as nine examples till the son said 'nevermore...nevermore'...
Talking of examples, they are the essence of teaching. If you wish your teaching to sink in, you must give as many examples of the theory as you can muster. I sold all my physics books after retirement, but I recall Feynman, in his Lectures, Vol III, had an entire chapter titled: 'Two-State Systems'...and the next chapter was titled: 'More Two-State Systems'...perhaps the next one was: 'Even More Two-State Systems' ;)
The other father-son dialogue was between Varuna and his son Brighu. This time the father asks his son to find out the truth for himself by meditation. And when he returns with a wrong answer, he was asked to come tomorrow after some more meditation. And when he returns again he was asked to go back and do even more meditation...altogether 5 times till the son discovers the truth on his own. The moral of the story seems to be that Assignments are better than Lectures...always providing there is no mass-copying.
When I reached Bengal from AP in 1965, I was flabbergasted with the word for 'tomorrow' in Bengali...'kal'. It took some time for me to tease it out that they say 'kal' for both yesterday and tomorrow. It was as if time had stopped flowing for them and started expanding instead. And they used to say: "What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India will think tomorrow". I don't know how the saying goes in Bengali since tomorrow can also mean yesterday in their lingo.
On the other hand, our Telugu is very rich in specifying time, if nothing else. The series is: atu monna (day before the day before yesterday), monna (day before yesterday), ninna (yesterday), repu (tomorrow), ellundi (day after tomorrow), aavalellundi (day after the day after tomorrow), ataavalellundi (day after the day after the day after tomorrow). I guess they got tired after all this sweating and let it go.
This reminds me of the Shraddha mantras involving pinda-daan and tarpan in our southee brahmins. The pundit rolls out 3 pindas for the ancestors on the male's side and 3 on the females of the lineage. Then he asks us to name the pita (dead father), then pitamaha (grandfather, presuming he too is dead), and prapitamaha (great-grandfather, surely dead). And similarly for the ladies.
This led to a rather amusing incident recently when my son was performing the first death anniversary of his mom. And I was a mute onlooker at the far end of our hall since I was under post-cataract care and so was forbidden to go anywhere near the fumes emanating from the sacrificial fires.
And I suddenly woke up to hear that the Pundit has assumed that my own mom is also in heaven and started giving a pinda for her too. And I had to shout: 'Stop!' And my son explained the goof-up. And the Pundit got up and did praayaschitta (seeking forgiveness by slapping his own cheeks) from my mom, very much alive at Gudur. But then he had rolled out the compulsory 3 pindas. So, he had to find the name for the fourth gen lady of my son...he has exhausted mata, pitamahi (alive and forbidden), and prapitamahi. And I was curious what he would say. And he went as 'Purvaprapitamahi'.
Great!
Coming back to 'tomorrow' I learned that most of the tricky issues in life can be avoided by just saying, with a false smile, "Tomorrow!"
This was what one of our senior professors used to do whenever he was asked a question on Quantum Mechanics. He always had ten or more slips in his shirt pocket and a pen. He would smile pleasingly and fish out a slip and jot down his 'important' question and say to the eager questioner, "Tomorrow!"
That was the end of it since slips are easily lost and there is always a 'day after tomorrow' and the 'day after the day after the day after the day after...' since Time is endless till one retires or dies, happily.
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