Warrier's Collage 01082020 : Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan

Prayer https://youtu.be/oLcIjxkIsT8 Vedic chanting of " AaNo Bhadrah..." Good Morning Today Collage has depended more on contribution from readers for its content. Even if you skip all else, don't miss the "words of wisdom" contributed by Dr Chitra from Nashik, included at E. Thanks for all your support by way of contribution and responses. In case, any of you have any reservations about Collage copying your responses under Interaction etc please inform, I'll act accordingly. M G Warrier M Warrier's Collage 01082020 : Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan A Interaction 1) Dr T V Gopalakrishnan, Ex-RBI, Bangalore " Warrier's Collage makes an interesting reading with lots of interesting and intellectual inputs from many veterans. I am sure this will keep many busy reading , thinking and contributing. Very good way of keeping exRbites together and engaging them in some creative and useful activities. Expansion of mind helps to expand life. With regards Dr TVG" { Many thanks for the encouraging words. We will try to keep the Collage going with participation from RBI family and outside. I have kept the doors open. When we restrict to retirees alone, the canvass for the "Collage" gets limited. I believe in "Aano Bhadrah Krtavo Yanthu Vishwatah" ( "Let noble thoughts come from all sides" : A Vedic Manthra which appears on the top of the opening page of "Bhavan's Journal*")- Warrier} *See B (3) below and the opening Prayer at the top. 2) C V Subbaraman, Ex-RBI, Mysuru " The Tune by Viral Acharya is music to the ears of music lovers. But it was not music to the ears of Finance Ministry Mandarins, who wanted VA to dance to their tunes! But good music is not for pleasing the ruling classes. Saint Thyagaraja refused to sing in praise of the King Sarabhoji. It required some exceptional courage to take that position in those days." 3) Vathsala Jayaraman " Your 'Collage' has been transformed into a regular 'College' with many options such as Arts, commerce, Business, Philosophy, Psychology, Logic and special Vedanthic lectures, shlokas, stotras and poojas for attaining peace of mind. The essential catering too finds a place. Wow! If we read with conviction, we can be masters of so many topics on earth. I have tried to search various topics on Google and have ended on many days with resultant product unconnected with my search and research, just like starting to create an image of Ganesha and ending with a monkey. Now no such botheration! The ready made product is on hand. No need to fight with pages and pages of webs. Butter is with us. We need not search for ghee anywhere. Thank you Warrier Sir for the wonderful service. May your service continue for ever. Vathsala Jayaraman" {Many Thanks for the encouraging words. Collage is being formatted with a fond hope that it can continue indefinitely. As it has only floating recipients, any of us can use the format (there's no patent right issues involved) with appropriate improvisation. Yesterday was a day of mixed fortunes for me. Within half an hour of pressing the send button, Dr Viral Acharya expressed happiness for sharing the message with him. As you are aware, anything good or bad, I don't keep to myself. I'll share with at least one more person. I informed my son that Dr Acharya was happy about the "Collage". Kiran, perhaps in his excitement asked : "Does Dr Acharya read your message?" I had evidence to share with him. In between, I wanted to share yesterday's Collage with some former Governors/DGs, with a small covering note. Covering note reached all of them, not the "Collage" Within minutes, two of them reported non-receipt of "attachment". Sent with apologies. I think, there's some changes in planetary positions. I've to be careful. "Blow Hot, Blow Cold" happening fast. Two days back, I lost from the laptop the formatted Collage and had to redo. Thanks and Regards-Warrier} 3) K S Iyer, Mumbai "Wow glad to read this excellent compilation, your Collage. Nice to see you still going strong with your writing work. 🙏🏽🕉️🕉️🕉️🙏🏽" 4) P K K Nair, Ex-NABARD, Bangalore " I must appreciate that the Collage provides a big canvas for our known friends near and far, cut off from mutual correspondences due to many factors, into close proximity. Thank u for ur initiative which is highly valued!! I remember very well my esteemed friendship with Shri K Ramasubramanian in RBI , Tvm. When I was the secretary of the Reserve Bank Officers Association, we arranged a picnic to the tourist destination ,courtallam, with about 25 officers and their families. A notable element of the picnic was the sumptuous lunch organised by Shri KR in his inlaws’s residence which all of us enjoyed very much. I now remember to have met KR once or twice after my trance to Mumbai . Let me thank Shri V Babusenan for his observation about my hobby. More notes will follow on my hobbies.! PKKNair" 5) S Nallasivan, Hyderabad "Today's "Collage" has more sessions on Dr.Viral Acharya. One thing we have to give it to him. That he has the knack of stealing head lines by creating political storm as often as he could. He had given a path-breaking interview when still he was holding the fort at the RBI. Then he had followed the foot steps of his Governor and quit his job before his due time causing a mild tremor . Now again he has been stealing headlines by opening his heart through printed words on who dictated monetary policies, an exclusive prerogative many believe, more so Shri Warrier, during difficult times. I confess that I have not gone through any of his interviews. I know of my weakness on numbers, money and economy. Now a piece of advice, though unwarranted, to Shri Warrier who is at the verge of going to the press to release his next Book (Third?) so what with e-version through hi favourite, Amazon. He has not after bringing out two books and in the process burnt a hole in his pocket, , should wake up now that publication of any book is preceded by a series of interviews and promotion tours. Have you not seen it, when Y.V.Reddy did it? Did not D Subbarao turn innocent and asked you who shifted his interest rate, mind you after his stint with RBI was over. Kindly enlighten me why the Finance Ministry never availed of the services of experts like Urjit Patel or Viral Acharya who knew the solution to see India coming out of slowdown and impending disaster, even during pandemic and are eased out very conveniently at the wrong time. Now on to Shri Babusenan's hunter and the arrow and the Pandya King's glorious past in rendering Justice. One of such Pandya King, Nedunchzhlian did injustice to Kovalan and Kannagi had to vent her anger by burning Madurai and arrived at Attukal as Bhagavathi to have her Guinnes record festival of Pongala I am sure whether Babusenan Sir agreed or not, it was the same hunter whose arrow got stuck in the leaves of the tree that got released and killed the feeding wife of the Brahmin traveler and he was the guilty party apprehended with blood on his hands though cause of action and ultimate punishment had a huge time gap. When His time came to return to Vaikunta Lord Krishna was hit by another arrow from a hunter and unusually got deliverance to the Lord Himself. Many say that it was the natural corollary of Kanthari's curse that Lord Krishna and His entire cow herd clan would be extinct . Again coming to Ramayana, it was the same arrow that played the mischief and the force behind the unfolding the Epic itself. King Dasratha aimed his arrow assuming that it was an elephant but turned out to be Shravan Kumar the son of blind parents. That curse of the blind parents brought the death of Dasaratha dying of Puthrasoka when Rama had to undergo 14 year Vanavasa. Now on Silver tongue of the Principal Rama Iyer from Trichy. It has been reported that Rama Iyer always carried a copy of Oxford Dictionary. Do you know that the original Right Honourable Srinivasa Satri, the Silver tongued carried a copy of Oliver Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake field. We had at our VO Chidambaram College a versatile Principal, rather a genius who taught Shakespeare (English) , Kalidasa (Sanskrit) and of course Kamban (Tamil) with mastery unparalleled. Thanks and regards S.Nallasivan." 6) Dr T V Surendran, Mananthavady Wayanad District Administration has been doing excellent job in prévention and control of Covid19 spread in the District. Unfortunately a few days ago, in a small village town Valaad, more than 500 people attended a wedding, and about 150 attended a funeral near the same area, triggering widespread dissemination of the virus infecting more than 150 people who are now under treatment. These people have travelled extensively in the District. (Attended prayers in mosques also) One special aspect of their celebration is sharing biryani from one pot kept in the centre of each table. Fish-fry, beaf, chicken etc are sometimes shared with bare hands..in rural areas. Years back in 1968, four of us ( tutors in Medical College) went to attend the marriage of our friend ( Muslim doctor). To our surprise, we saw 5-6 persons sharing from the same tray/plate. Being special guests, luckily for us, we got separate plates.( Of course, the biryani was😀👌) Just a continuation of the previous days' discussion on marriage Sadya in Kerala. B Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan 1) About Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan http://www.bhavans.info/periodical/bj_selection.asp 2) K M Munshi, Founder of Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan https://www.liveindia.com/freedomfighters/15.html 3) Bhavan's Journal http://www.bhavans.info/bj/15July2020/index.php#page/1 4) Aano Bhadrah... https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/aano-bhadra-krtavo-yantu-vishwatah See Youtube link at the top (Prayer) C God's Own Country An interaction on the genesis of the "God's Own Country", excerpted at random from an exchange of views among 4 ExRBites (Slightly edited by "Collage") : Vathsala Jayaraman : "Normally it is stated that Kerala was created by Parasurama, an Avatar of Mahavishnu. It is axiomatic that one avatara is succeeded by another. Lord Krishna himself declared in the Gita, “Sambhavami yuge yuge”. The fifth avatara is that of Vaamana, who is Vishnu in dwarf form. He took three steps, covering the heavens in one step and the Earth in the second step. With his third step, he pushed King Bali or Mahabali into Patala. The legend goes that Mahabali was the king in Kerala and appears every year during Onam to meet his happy subjects who cherish his memory. The legend also goes that Kerala was formed by Parashurama - the sixth avatara - who threw his axe into the sea and carved out a piece of land for Brahmins to live in peace. The Brahmins were earlier oppressed by the kshatriyas and Parashurama was born to decimate them. So, how can Vamana -the fifth avatara be co-terminus with the next - sixth avatara-Parasurama? While Kerala itself was created by Parasurama in 6th Avathar, how could Mahabali rule Kerala during the 5th Avatar? Though Onam is a festival of gratitude by one and all. Keralaites alone have recognized the same and made it a glorious part of kerala Culture! Well done Keralites! Now here is another confusion: In the Ramayana, Parasurama, a follower of Lord Shiva felt aggrieved by Rama’s breaking the bow of Shiva and challenged Rama to a duel - a trial of strength. This ended in his defeat and in some way led to his being “excluded from a seat in the celestial world”. How can Parasurama - the sixth avatara - coexist with the next i.e. the seventh avatara-Rama? Dassaavatar confusion will remain as long as the universe is active. Avatars are incarnations of Omnipresent God. If we believe that God dwells in every human being, millions and trillions, all at the same time, there is no question of contradiction of Avatars- one preceding or succeeding or having two avatars simultaneously.. Srimat Bhagavatam speaks of nearly 25 avatars. Many scholars include Mohini and Dhanvantri also as avatars of Vishnu. When we talk about Avatars we think of Vishnu who transcends all limitations of time and place. When we start analysing we compare them with normal human beings capable of living in one place at a time. It may be beyond human intelligence to understand the intricacies of avatars in the proper perspective. "But the Travancore authorities showed a Palm Leaf written on 20th January, 1750 signed by the then Travancore King Anizhom Thirunal Marthanda Varma in favour of the Lord Padmanabha Swamy that the entire Travancore Kingdom, which extended from today's Kanyakumari and Paravoor, belongs to the Lord. Now a new explanation emerges (thro Thuglak) for the expression of God's own country, based on the above palm leaf inscription. This refers only to Travancore Samsthan and may not pertain entire Kerala state. This explanation, in a way, may clear the confusion regarding the nomenclature of God's own country, for people from Travancore. Still Avatar confusion remains incomprehensible for the normal intelligence of common man." M G Warrier (In lighter vein) : " I'm a little confused after reading this. I'll read again and try to understand. Meanwhile, as a Keralite (and having a DNA-lien on the Brahmins protected by Parasurama) I am feeling guilty. Last time when I was on a beach in Kerala, finding me searching something, mh friend enquired what was lost. I said, "Nothing. Was wondering whether the Axe thrown by Parasurama may be lying somewhere here!" He asked a most unexpected question : " Why 'you' need it ?" As I used to do in meetings, I pretended as if I was taking deep breathes, to borrow time to think about it and said : "I'll pick up and stealthily keep where Parasurama was standing, while throwing it to retrieve this land." He was not amused. Nor was the present "OWNER" of that country. As a result, I'm stranded here in Mumbai. They expect an apology from me before allowing me to return to Kerala. To help out others, I may oblige." V T Panchapagesan : "Just like rationalists reason out, people should and must wake up Asking questions from learned scholars for clarification. If not and if this trend continues, people blindly will tend to ape other Cultures......borrow other’s ideas and start incorporating them into their Life Style attempting to be trendy.....As a process they tend to start Disrespecting their true identity slowly and steadily risk losing it...... Ten Avatars denote physical evolution of the human form... From that Atman, Space came into being, from Space came Wind, From wind Fire, from fire water, from water Earth, from Earth plants , Food, from food man came into being........ First six avatars, are Water dwelling, Amphibian, Animal-land, Man-animal,Dwarf and fully grown man...... Rama was the quint essential evolved human being who was completely Overcome animal like passions.. Bala Rama ..plough. —agriculture...work culture Krishna flute ...fine arts, etc.. expressing feelings and emotions... Kalki warning about the destruction that the human race capable Of bringing upon itself as we see now , bio chemical form of destruction.. Be Well," C V Subbaraman : During our school and college days (1940-55) in Kerala we never had any such description of Kerala as "God's own country". However, in our Sankalpams for all pujas and vratams, we used to add "Parasuraama Kshetre" in addition to "Bharatha Khande, Meroh Dakshne paarshwe" . It is understood that King Mahaabali ruled over the region. However, there seems to be no evidence for this. His kingdom as per some beliefs lay somewhere the present Uttar Pradesh or somewhere in Pakistan. Parasurama did not "create Kerala region" but "retrieved" it from the Sea. So the possibility that Mahabali ruled over this region "cannot be ruled out" as the official cliche goes! In any case, the people in the region respected Mahabali and Mahabali in return visits them once a year. Incidentally, Parasurama was against the superdominance of Kshatriyaas and therefore fought them. After retrieving the Kerala region, he guided the local brahmins called Namboodiris. The Namboodiris consider themselves as superior to other brahmins who migrated from other parts of the country to Kerala. The migrant brahmins are still recorded in some legal ducuments like land records as "Paradeshi Brahmins". Mahabali was a benevolent ruler. He was a Vishnu Bhakta. Even though Indra requested Lord Vishnu to kill Mahabali, Vishnu did not oblige but only drove him to the netherlands. Even though I think that I do not belong to the Asura lineage, I sympathise with Mahabali and do not appreciate that action of Vishnu in dethroning Bali. Bali is still a Vishnu Bhakta. He is set to take over from the present Indra in the next kalpam. But even that is not fair, for Indra is not a good character as he has several misdeeds to his "credit" and that an ardent devotee like Mahabali should take over the unholy position of Indra is not a good reward for his Vishnu Bhakti. It would have been much better if he was blessed with an exalted position like Dhruva or Prahlaada. As for survival of Parasurama even after Rama Avataar, it can only be said that after taking over the powers of the Avataar from Parasurama, the latter was left to carry on as a Sage and revered Teacher. Thus he survived the Treta Yugam and lived through Dwapara yugam to be the teacher for great personalities like Bhishma, Karna and others. He is one of the seven Chiranjeevis and therefore beyond mortality. "Aswathhaamaa, BalirVyaaso, Hanuman cha Vibhishanah, Kripah Parasuraamascha Saptaitaan chiranjeevinah" Vathsala Jayaraman : "Perhaps Vishnu considered it a better boon to be celebrated for 10days throughout the kaliyuga than the status of Druva and prahlad.We don't know the divine sankalpas. Whether Indra was good or not as per stories, he had an exalted position." Subbaraman continues : " Incidentally, there is some additional information that I could gather from the net on God's Own Country: Quote: Still we have not covered our core point or the question: How Kerala got that magical tagline "The God's own country"? In fact even many of the Malayalees, the sons of the soil, don't know how it got that attractive tag-God's own country it was created by one Mr Walter Mendez, who was also the Creative Director of a reputed Ad agency in India. The creation took birth in the year 1989. Sadly, the man is no more now as he died some 10 years ago. Walter coined the tag on the request of Kerala Tourism Department when the Kerala government wished to market Kerala's high tourism potentialities before the travel world. The phrase "God's own country" did wonders. Also it had a magical impact. The tourists changed their travel plans and made Kerala their preferred destination when they noticed the ads in tourism magazines and other periodicals. They longed to experience and feel the luxury of "God's own country"" A N Jayaram "Kerala was bestowed with the "God's own Country" title by Walter Mendez, the Corporate Creative Director of the national advertising agency Mudra Communications Limited in the 1980's. This agency was commissioned by KTDC for advertising Kerala as a tourism destination. It was the tagline he created. Prior to this I had never seen this jargon/phrase in usage in Kerala also. In 80s, only two temples were famous Padmanabhaswamy and Krishna temple (Guruvayur). Every tourist used to visit these two and suddenly this name was given I was wondering whether the state has opened innumerable temples and become God's own place. Just an observation." ( Though that is besides the point, Kerala has hundreds of Hindu temples. Please see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_temples_in_Kerala - Warrier) Vathsala Jayaraman : " That is a pragmatic title given to a part of our nation with development of Tourism behind.A great idea! Thank you for the nice information." AND Tourism needs marketing : https://www.deccanherald.com/content/486162/a-brand-voyage.html D Readers write Fun with words V Babusenan, Thiruvananthapuram It is common knowledge that refined speech or writing is impossible without what are called figures of speech. Poets cannot live without them.The most common among these are upama(simile) and roopakam(metaphor). Among the other figures of speech, 'Shlesham', a word having two meanings, is sought after by rasikas. Its equivalent in English is 'homonym'-words like bat, pen, book, page etc. Let us watch two "Rasikas" indulging in shleshaprayoga.They are not mere Rasikas, they are writers of great repute: One is our 'bitter-paalpayasam fame' Kunchan Nambiar and the other Unnayi Warrier, the formidable author of 'Nalacharitham' Aattakkadha. They are thick friends, though not exactly birds of the same feather. In Thiruvananthapuram, they are returning from morning ablutions.The Maharaja saw them. He asked:"In which pond you took bath today?" "Sire, I took bath in a tank full of kari-mixed water." replied Warrier most respectfully". "Bad luck", said the Maharaja. "Nambiar, what about you? The same bad luck?" "No,Sire." said Nambiar with gusto. "I took bath in kalabha-mixed water." The Maharaja smiled. "Okay,okay," he said, "Now go and have your prayer." The Maharaja understood. Both of them took bath in the same pond where an elephant and its young one also took bath'. Kari 'means elephant in Sanskrit and 'charcoal' in Malayalam. 'Kalabham' is the young one of an elephant and also the pleasant -smelling 'sandal paste' This is a very popular story. Not as much well-known is another very effective shleshaprayogam from a source one rarely expects. The incident was like this: There is a Jagannatha temple in Thalassery, Kannur district, modelled after the Puri Jagannatha Temple. It was consecrated by the great Saint-cum-Social Reformer Sree Narayana Guru in the first decade of the 20th century. The incident occurred, if I am not mistaken, in this temple. The custodians of this temple were, no doubt, his followers, but a certain policy of theirs was at variance with Guru's famous principle of One Caste, One Religion, One God. The Guru intervened. The remnant of the feudal mentality in the committee that managed the temple was hesitant to go with Guru's plans. The committee pleaded: "Let the varsha be over, Swamiji. We promise,we will certainly implement what you say." While the discussion was going on, it was raining the proverbial cats and dogs outside. The rain stopped. The Guru turned to them and said: "Now that the varsha is over, fulfil your promise" "The committee had no choice. The word 'varsha' has two meanings: 'a year 'and 'rain' E Think it over From the collection of Dr Chitra, Nashik : "Punchlines . . . good ones! Few of them may be repeats . . 1. I'm a nobody, nobody is perfect, and therefore I'm perfect. 2. I've got to sit down and work out where I stand. 3. If I save time, when do I get it back? 4. Where there's a will, I want to be in it. 5. I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally. 6. Take my advice, I don't use it anyway. 7. The statement below is true. The statement above is false. 8. As I said before, I never repeat myself. 9. Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. 10. I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called brightness, but it doesn't work. 11. A conscience does not prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it. 12. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. 13. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left. 14. Best way to prevent hangover is to stay drunk. 15. Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected become the expected? 16. If your father is a poor man, it is your fate, but, if your father-in-law is a poor man, it's your stupidity. 17. I was born intelligent - education ruined me. 18.A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where train stops. On my desk, I have a work station... What more can I say? 19. If it's true that we are here to help others, then, what exactly are the others here for? 20. Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak. 21. How come "abbreviated" is such a long word 22. Don’t frown. You never know who is falling in love with your smile. 23. The Best of Proverbs: Should women have children after 35? No, 35 children are enough. 24. Living on Earth may be expensive... but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun. 25. Your future depends on your dreams. So go to sleep! 26. ALCOHOL KILLS SLOWLY. So what? Who’s in a hurry? 27. Whom are you working for? Same people. My wife and kids 28. Can you do anything that other people can't? Sure, I can read my handwriting. 29. A drunk was hauled into court. Mister, the judge began, you've been brought here for drinking.... "Great", the drunk exclaimed : "When do we get started?"