Warrier's Collage December 13, 2021
Warrier's COLLAGE
On
Monday
December 13, 2021
Good Morning
Some readers informed that they missed some issues of Collage. Many THANKS for the support.
Collage can be accessed also at
www.warriersblog.com
At the Blog, links may not open directly.
Nice Day
M G Warrier
A
CURRENT AFFAIRS
https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=52704
The BRICS Economic Bulletin 2021 addresses the theme of ‘Navigating the Ongoing Pandemic : The BRICS Experience of Resilience and Recovery’, covering the economic recovery and its divergences, inflation risks, external sector performances, financial sector vulnerabilities and other macroeconomic risks.
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Spirituality/Faith
charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted:
Unity in Diversity - 98
संतत ही सतसंगति संग सुरंग रते जसु गावत है
ध्रम पंथु धरिओ धरनीधर आपि रहे लिव धारि न धावत है
Saints dwell in holy company, imbued in love, singing praises of God
God created path of Dharma: devotee follows steadfast
Mathura, 1404, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1469823342983012353?s=20
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Readers Write
The song that saved : V Babusenan
"Innalae neeyoru sundara raagamaayen
Ponnodakkuzhalil vannolichirunnu
Maamaka karaangulee chumbana
lahariyil
Prema sangeethamaay nee
puratthu vannu."
(Yesterday, you crept into my beloved flute and lay hidden in it as a beautiful raga. Today, you came out, much excited by the kisses of deft fingers, as a scintillating love song)
You and I may think that these exquisite lines were written by a gifted poet who imagined himself a Mahalingam or Ramani playing the raga Kapi on his flute. If so, we are wide off the mark. It was the opening lines of a film song written for a Malayalam film released some time during the year 1970.
The same lyricist had written another song for a trend-setter film 'Neelakkuyil' much earlier in1954 which was destined to remain on the lips of every Malayaalee for years to come. The song was in an entirely different genre. It's opening lines are these :
" Kaayalarikatthu valayerinjappol
Valakilukkiya sundaree
Pennukettinu kuriyedukkumpol
Oru narukkinu cherkkanae "
(Oh,my beauty! When I spread my fishing net in the lake, I heard the jingle of your bangles. Please include my name too while choosing your husband by lot.)
No flight of imagination, only common things like bangles, fishing and lottery, no sophisticated tunes, singable by anyone. It is really surprising that both these songs flowed from the same pen, that of P Bhaskaran, whose contribution to film lyrics was formidable. Of the major lyricists of yester-years like Bhaskaran Maash(he was affectionately called so) Vayalar Rama Varma, Yusuffali Kecheri, ONV Kurup, Bichu Thirumala, Poovachal Khader, Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri and Sreekumaran Thampi, only the last two are alive now. Of them, Bhaskaran Maash and Sreekumaran Thampi distinguished themselves as film directors too. It is interesting to note that the former entered the literary arena as a revolutionary poet. It was he who wrote the poem 'Vayalar Garjikkunnu'(Vayalar Roars) as a sequel to the important political event that could be regarded as the Waterloo of the last Dewan of the princely state of Travancore.
Lyrics of film songs, as a rule, do not
come to the help of the lyricists. Here is an exception to the rule, narrated by the lyricist himself. Once Bhaskaran Mash and a friend were stranded late in the night on a mountainous road in Wynad. The last bus to Kozhikode had gone and they did not know what to do. Then a lorry stopped there and its driver and cleaner got down to drink black coffee from the wayside shop. They were not that willing to oblige the stranded friends. Then something happened. The cleaner in his fresh enthusiasm started singing aloud 'Ka ayalarikatthu valayerinjappol...'Looking at the driver the friend said: "Here stands the man who wrote that song." As if by magic, the mood suddenly changed. The two friends were wholeheartedly welcomed inside the vehicle.
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The book on my table :
Prasnottara-ratna-malika by Shankaracharya
http://www.sanskritebooks.org/2009/04/prasnottara-ratna-malika-of-sankaracharya-sanskrit-english/
"Prasnottara Ratna Malika (प्रश्नोत्तर रत्नमालिका) of Adi Shankara is a collection of 67 verses comprising of questions and answers pertaining to both spiritual and temporal living. This book comprises of the sanskrit verses and their english translation.
Many of the answers are so accurate that we find ourselves transported for a moment into a sublime state of peace and silence. At the same time in some rare cases, the answers to some questions do not seem to be given by a highly enlightened soul like Adi Sankara. It is generally considered that this text was
authored by Adi Sankara though some scholars do not agree with this. We do not know if some of these verses are later interpolations."
VERSE 27* :
Meaning in English :
"What enhances the fame of a family, just as the sun makes a lotus bloom and reveal its beauty and perfume?
The presence of one in the family who, though endowed with great merits, is yet free from self conceit. Who is able to win over to his side the society in which he is living. The person who speaks what is true and beneficial and who is righteous in his conduct"
(*In Shankara's works, I read Stanza 27 first 🙏-Warrier)
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Media : Book Review
http://mainstreamweekly.net/article11862.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
In Defence of the Ordinary:
Everyday Awakenings
by Dev Nath Pathak
Excerpts :
"This insightful, demonstrative, and lively account of experiences and stories addresses a wide range of readers. The book breaks the confines of academic structures and envisions an ordinary. Opening through its intrepid preface, the author’s attempt to visualize ordinariness gets highlighted in every chapter of the text. Additionally, the profound amalgamation of humor, poems, visuals, and narratives binds the essence of polemics positioned towards institutions, structures, and wider politics of academia. Pathak’s awareness of institutional hegemony, complexities of selfwithin such landscapes, and a persistent struggle of an ordinary teacher are remarkable.
The book is distributed majorly into five sections communicating the nature of each portion. In the beginning, the author emerges with an unsettling statement ‘It looks like the world is eager to overcome ordinariness’ (p.3.) which shifts the reader’s attention towards oneself. This is conspicuous because the centrality of feeling ordinary is an essential fear for almost many growing scholars in various thematic academic affiliations. The section further unfurls the works of litterateurs such as Bhagwati Charan Verma’s Chitralekha, Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora, and several other contemporary filmmakers of twentieth-century India which establishes a deeper interconnection of personal, narrative, and the ordinary. He further unravels the meaning(s) of ordinariness through the philosophical work of Debriprasad Chattopadhyaya on Lokayata and how individuals need to navigate such philosophy. The attempt to combine the aspects of seeing, listening, and becomingis substantiated creatively with several examples from the characters of oral and epic traditions, like Moses, Sanjay, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Vyāsa, etcetera.
Pathak also provides an extensive discussion on everydayness and personalizes the book with experienced narrative, or to put it more effectively, the rallying phrase of personal is political is in every chapter. The author soulfully investigates ordinariness through the medium of life and death, blending his training as a sociologist, critic, and experiences as an individual who grew up listening to cultural hymns. The discussion of ordinary emotions is represented both from philosophical, religious, textual tradition, and through personal narratives of friendship, jokes, and love. His declaration to ‘no emotion is innocent’ (p. 47.) is interplayed brilliantly through the introduction of Khattar Kaka, the creation of a Maithili Litterateur named Hari Mohan Jha, Pathak’s endeavor to inject the regional works of literature adds unadulterated light to the book. The ruminations employ cinema, folk stories, legends, to draw the analogy of ordinary―and―self. Towards the end of the second section, the author talks about the culture of protest and why questioning becomes a significant part of a student’s life. He highlights the corporate roles of educational institutions and how arguing or debates are now disassociated with “educational thinking”.
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Leisure : Music
This is a performance by Vathsala Jayaraman's grandson Aditya, 17, in USA.
42:24NOW PLAYING
GFA Yuva Samarpanam - Concert #28 - Chi. Aditya Anandan
Gayatri Fine Arts
Link shared by Vathsala Jayaraman
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PICTURE OF HAPPINESS*
The great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmat - once asked his friend ABIDIN DINO (Turkish artist and well-known painter), to draw a picture of HAPPINESS
He drew a picture of a whole family. All cramped up on a broken bed, under a leaky roof in a shabby room. Still with a smile on each member's face!
Goes without saying that the painting became very famous.
Happiness is not absence of sufferings but acceptance of sufferings.
See good around you even in trying situations.
Stop worrying about things which are beyond your control. Stay happy!
*Was curious. Digged out :
https://poets.org/poem/living
See H below for POEM
H
On Living
By Nazim Hikmat
I
Living is no laughing matter:
you must live with great seriousness
like a squirrel, for example—
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
you must take it seriously,
so much so and to such a degree
that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
your back to the wall,
or else in a laboratory
in your white coat and safety glasses,
you can die for people—
even for people whose faces you've never seen,
even though you know living
is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees—
and not for your children, either,
but because although you fear death you don't believe it,
because living, I mean, weighs heavier.
II
Let's say we're seriously ill, need surgery—
which is to say we might not get up
from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see if it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
for the latest newscast. . .
Let's say we're at the front—
for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
we might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We'll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind—
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.
III
This earth will grow cold,
a star among stars
and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet—
I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space . . .
You must grieve for this right now
—you have to feel this sorrow now—
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived". . .
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