Gerontology

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Here is a tidbit from a news item in ToI of today:


"He (Bheempuri Babajee, 116), however, left many spellbound when he spoke about his guru - Arjunpuri Maharaj - who is now 137 years-old. Turns out this 1878-born saint form Haridwar actually paid a visit to his disciple in hospital recently"


This reminds me of our fond joke in our village at Muthukur: 

This street merchant was holding his ring of audience spellbound by his tall tales trying to sell his youth-expanding drug saying he has been using it for all of 900 years. And he sent his youthful assistant around pushing the vial among the crowd. And they asked this boy if it was really true that his boss was 900 years old. And the boy whispered:

"Can't say...he may be bluffing...I have been working for him for only 600 years"

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmchumor.com%2Fmedicine_geriatric_toons.html&ei=NFJKVZ-SCpLhuQSHjoCoDQ&bvm=bv.92291466,d.c2E&psig=AFQjCNGJMFudYsLzkKfv8bFDDfYhjooh_Q&ust=1431020122120538

...Posted by Ishani

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Sloganeering - 3

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http://previews.123rf.com/images/sifotography/sifotography1409/sifotography140900676/32016155-Portrait-young-funny-teenager-girl-sticking-out-tongue-at-you-camera-gesture-thumbs-hands-on-temple--Stock-Photo.jpg

The other day I was saying that chanting the slogan, Vande Mataram, acted as a red rag to our British Bull who ordered lathi charge, firing squad, and imprisonment.

It is not always necessary that a taunt has to be verbal at high decibels. In our school years, students who were beat up by their teachers used to stick their tongues out and hold their temples with their outstretched hands to show their annoyance at the back of the said teacher to the vast amusement of their sympathetic classmates (see pic above).

A good 30 years later, I was at IIT KGP as a junior professor of physics and heard the story that a senior professor X of a certain high-flying department was at loggerheads with another senior professor Y of the same department. And matters got heated up and ultimately Prof X lodged a written complaint to the Director that Prof Y was in the annoying habit of sticking his tongue out and holding his open hands at his silent temples whenever Y sees X alone in the corridor (see pic above). 

Needless to say, the Director appointed a high-power committee to investigate into the serious written complaint of X against Y. The sacred committee must have met a dozen happy times trying to figure out the naked truth. I don't recall how it all ended but there was no visible action taken against Y. Maybe because X failed to produce convincing witnesses. Or maybe the committee suspected X was suffering from a persecution complex in which case he would have been awarded free treatment at the BCR Hospital which, having no qualified psychiatrists, referred the matter to the BNR Hospital who forwarded the academic case to Midnapore who forwarded the case to PG Medial College Calcutta who laughed it out maybe.

You may think I am making it all up. But I assure you that most senior professors are a wee abnormal since they duly shed their teaching loads and live in their silent towers. Here is Einstein himself acting the goat: 

...Photographer Arthur Sasse should be given the credit for capturing this quirky mood of the scientist way back in 1951 at his birthday celebration in Princeton. We are told that Sasse was trying to convince Einstein to pose for a pic but the scientist stuck out his tongue instead. Again, later Einstein ordered 9 copies of this pic and even signed one for news anchor Howard K. Smith with a message: “This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein ’53.”

The pic is symbolic because it gives us a sneak peak into the McCarthysim that had enveloped the USA that even required scientists to report on their colleagues...

http://elitechoice.org/2009/06/23/einsteins-mocking-pic-auction-for-a-huge-amount-of-74330/

http://d2hej51cni6o0x.cloudfront.net/images/cold-war/cwrl_05_img0584.jpg

...Posted by Ishani

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OMG!!!

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http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/160/9/f/omg_really__by_danikinsfever-d68dldr.jpg

Today's DC reports that the CM of a certain state in South India has boasted in public:

"You may not believe it, but I must have read over 80,000 books so far".

I thought there must be some printing error but it was there twice in different places in the news item, and also as a boxed item in ToI.

The great man is just 60 years old and is a family man (not an ascetic) and has been a very busy farmer-politician:

“This (farm) is all what I have to show you all so that my detractors can know how I spend my spare time in fields not just as past-time hobby but as a sincere farmer with an aim to make it big in agriculture by utilising the technological advancements. I would like to present it as a model to the farming community in the neighbourhood so that at least some of them can replicate the success,”

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/trs-leader-proves-his-mettle-in-farming/article5532876.ece


A simple calculation (from womb till now) tells me (unless I am wrong) that he must have read relentlessly over 3.65 books per day between his farming and politicking!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/literature-bookworm-reader-reading-book_lovers-booklovers-llan1357_low.jpg

Posted by Ishani

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Sloganeering - 2

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http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2624/images/20091204262411903.jpg

I was born at the peak of the Quit India Movement and so was too young to fight our British rulers with any gusto. But I was told that the slogan 'Vande Mataram' shouted at the British was much like "Jai Patala Bhairavi!" with our Telugu teacher. It was a red rag for the British bull. 

Tales were told that whoever shouts: "Vande Mataram!" in a crowd would get beatings from the lathis of our own native policemen in the employ of our benign British rulers. And during the Quit India movement, this slogan would elicit even firing from their rusted police guns. And that this gent, Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu (who went on to become the first CM of our Andhra State after we gained freedom from the Tamil Rule) ran towards the police during the Quit India Movement shouting: "Vande Mataram!" baring his chest...the police got confused. (Wiki tells me that the event actually happened during the boycott of the Simon Commission during which another catchy slogan was in vogue: "Simon Go Back!") 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bvsd-ivCIAE10Bj.jpg

When we were at school in the early 1950s, the first stanza of Vande Mataram was sung daily as a prayer song at the beginning of our school assembly. And I could intuit the meaning of the stanza which sounded like just a glorification of the beauty and bounty that Nature bestowed on our motherland:

http://blog.thrillophilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fragrant-Nature-resort1.jpg

And I wondered what was so provoking about it to the British whose own Lake Districts thrilled their Wordsworth so much that he wrote his 'Daffodils' which we had to mug up and vomit without provoking bullets:

http://www.shortpoems.org/poets/wordsworth/wordsworth-daffodil-.jpg

It simply shows that slogans are slogans and don't have to mean much to generate fury and wrath.

Here is how Vande Mataram got to be written:

...Bande Mataram was composed even before the Ananda Math was born. It happened in 1875 when, on a holiday, Bankim boarded a train to his native place, Kantalapada. The train passed into the outskirts of the city and glided through vast tracts of land, wrapped in enchanting green foliage, decked with multifarious flowers, nourished and nurtured by hurrying streams and beautiful lakes and unveiling the bewitching charm of nature in all its splendour. The poet's heart was thrilled with the vision of his exquisite Mother-the Bharata Mata-and he burst into song...

http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_120102.htm


Well, I am no poet...on the other hand...

But one early July morning in 2005 just before I quit Bengal for good, I was taking two of my Telugu nieces on an excursion to Calcutta from KGP in a hired Tata Sumo. And it was the beginning of the sumptuous Bengal monsoon of which Tagore wrote so many songs. And I looked out the window at the delightful white drizzle that was drenching the Bengal greenery. And I asked my nieces to sing the first stanza of their Vande Mataram which they did after some coaxing. And then I asked them to stop chatting inanities and look out the window to realize the meaning of the blessed song. 

And the Brits killed people without ever knowing its meaning:  


....Thousands of our pre-independence patriots had to suffer grievously in uttering and singing this song which before independence was considered the National Anthem. Some of them lost their lives for singing this song. Every patriot from Khudiram Bose to Bhagat Singh and Rajguru died with the mantram of Vande Mataram on their lips. It had become spontaneously the National Anthem adopted by the mass of our people.

http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_120102.htm

And now...

What a fall my countrymen!

The current slogan of our Crown Prince is:

"Suit Boot ki Sarakar!"

And its counter is the equally inept:

"Sooj Bhoojh ki Sarkar!"

...Jaitley took another potshot at Rahul — without naming him — when he called the Modi government a “soojh boojh ki sarkar”. This remark was in an apparent reference to Rahul’s recent “suit boot ki sarkar” remark...

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/jaitley-replies-to-rahuls-jibe-says-this-is-sooj-boojh-ki-sarkar/

I don't think our Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu's great-grandson would now bare his chest shouting:

"Suit Boot ki Sarkar!"

...Posted by Ishani

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Moga Mortem

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"The father of the girl, who was molested and pushed to death from a moving bus in Punjab's Moga on Sunday, finally agreed to the holding of a post-mortem..."


DC, Monday 4 May, Page 7


gps: This can happen only in our Punjab...a pushed and molested dead man finally agreeing to his own post-mortem.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/medical-second_opinion-referral-patient-post_mortem-proved_right-mfln4754_low.jpg

...Posted by Ishani
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Sloganeering - 1

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Pathala_Bhairavi.jpg

The first catchy slogan I heard was in 1951 when the new Telugu film 'Patala Bhairavi' got released and went on to become a super-duper hit. It was a mythological film in which this Nepal Mantrik (sorry!) succeeds in pleasing the goddess Patala Bhairavi and she appears before him and gifts him a handy idol with magical powers. Anyone who holds this idol in his hand and touches his forehead with it and says: 

"Jai Patala Bhairavi!"

would bring to life the goddess Patala Bhairavi who asks him:

"Narudaa! Emi nee korika?" ("What is your desire, man?")

much like the genie in the Aladin and his magic lamp.

And she would then instantly fulfill his desire whatever.

The slogan: "Jai Patala Bhairavi!" caught on like wild fire and was on the lips of all and sundry.

This Telugu teacher in our school, VV Sarma, known for his tantrums, one day got so lost in his teaching that suddenly he shouted: 

"Jai Patala Bhairavi!"

All of us laughed and he frowned. Then on "Jai Patala Bhairavi" became his nickname. And when he was found walking in the streets of an evening, street urchins would shout: "Jai Patala Bhairavi!" and he would chase them till he went out of breath. But of course kids will be kids and they continued their prank whenever he was found in the marketplace. Ultimately he got frustrated and declared loudly:

"You are like dogs barking at an elephant!"

Then on, the urchins would call him:

"Elephant! Elephant!! Elephant!!!"

till he vanished out of sight.

Another day when I was in my preteens we were visiting my uncle's place at Vizagh in the center of the city. And when we were crossing the road, there was this terrific commotion and a street battle was in progress. It subsided only when the police arrived with their lathis.

I couldn't make out what it was all about but was told the story by my elders. Apparently this youthful lad went to this roadside bunk selling cigarettes and beedis and paans and sodas. The shop was then being manned by the lady of the owner. And this lad bought and lit his fag and went into a rapture and shouted:

"Jai Patala Bhairvi!"

aiming at no one in particular. And this lady couldn't restrain herself and yelled back:

"Narudaa! Emi nee korika?" ("What is your desire, man?")

...the slogan was so catchy. And this lad winked at her and shouted back:

"Neevey naa korika!" ("You truly are my desire!")

All hell broke loose since the tender and demure lady in question started throwing tantrums and shouting and ultimately crying till her hubby peeped in and started a slugfest and the friends of the lad joined the ruckus and a street fight ensued.

So much for the power of catchy slogans!!!

http://static1.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/1200-5/photos/1247775.jpg

...Posted by Ishani

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Medicalese

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http://old.mackaycartoons.net/2010/2010-04-27.jpg

That is a fun-pun on church organs.

One lazy evening in 1967, I was lounging on the lawn bench of our Faculty Hostel at IIT KGP smoking a thoughtful Wills Flake. And then there was a commotion and my friend VR came and sat by my side and broke the news that the first heart transplant on a human being has been successfully done by one Dr Christiaan Barnard. And I asked him if it was done in America or England, the only two countries we cared for then. 

VR replied, no, the achievement was from South Africa which we knew only for its apartheid and Pollock Brothers. 

Dr Barnard's picture duly appeared on the front cover of the next week's Time magazine in our Faculty Club: 

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1967/1101671215_400.jpg

Wiki says that Dr Barnard was very photogenic. Yes, that he was, as you can see from his pic above. But I doubt if it helped him in his surgery, but it did for his popularity no doubt.

The details were few and far between but the most acclaimed fact was that the patient survived for all of 18 days after the transplant. I then recalled my Father's fond joke:

"The operation is successful but the patient died"

Anyway, by 1971, Dr Barnard had achieved the remarkable feat that his latest patient went on and on and got to live for 23 years!

Well, that evening on the lawn bench was the first I heard of transplanting a human organ...I was not quite up-to-date on medicalese.

I come from a seaside village, Muthukur, which was surrounded by fertile rice fields and Father used to take me to his bit of a half acre to show off the rice cultivation.

And I learned that first the rice seeds are thrown haphazardly in a bit of wet nursery while the rest of the field was getting prepared. And after a few weeks by when the seeds sprout, the seedlings are transplanted by hands of ladies in their furrows in the entire farm:

http://www.rkmp.co.in/sites/default/files/eis_states/A%20179%20Dr.%20R.M.%20Kumar%20(DRR).JPG

And a few months later the crop is harvested, again by poorly paid ladies:

http://blog.worldfishcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/5558982792_b4ebd1f652_b.jpg

And after winnowing and such post-harvest operations the paddy is transported to the nearest rice mill in Brahmadevam, this time by men and bullocks:

http://www.intltravelnews.com/images/2008/09/big/india2.jpg

But yesterday I read this titillating news item in DC:

"The liver from a brain dead farmer from Visakhapatnam was harvested and transported to Hyderabad on Tuesday morning to be transplanted in a 63-year-old patient in Global Hospitals here"

...DC Wednesday 29 April

Apparently the otherwise strict traffic police of Hyderabad gave a 'green channel' for the dead man's liver...something reserved for the live Chief Minister and his Police Chief. And the liver reached the hospital from the airport in flat 20 minutes while my living liver would take anything like a couple of peak traffic hours:

http://dd508hmafkqws.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_node_view/public/29LIVER%203.jpg

What amused my cruel heart was that the agricultural terms, 'harvesting', 'transporting', and 'transplanting' took place in a haphazard order than my Muthukur rice and the dead donor was a farmer.

Tough Question

Just now Ishani came to my bed and watched me for a few seconds and asked me:

"Granpa! Why do you do blogging?'

for which I had no easy answer.



...Posted by Ishani

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