Warrier's Collage on Sunday September 25, 2022
Welcome To
Warrier's COLLAGE
On
Sunday
September 25, 2022
Painting 🙏 By Reshmy Warrier
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci2xPyHhDS-/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Good Morning 🌄
Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during the week ending Saturday October 1, 2022. Ayurarogyasaukhyam 🙏 and Best Wishes
Yesterday Collage shared a YouTube link* introducing Vedas and select Upanishads. From tomorrow, outside Collage, we begin a five part series on Pre-Religion Indian Knowledge. The reception from enlightened readers to the series on Ganga last week was encouraging. A big Thank You for that.
Nice Day
M G Warrier
*Vedas and Upanishads :
https://youtu.be/sgAg8s_7VEc
4C : A short film in Malayalam
https://youtu.be/YcXFoFA7q3Q
(Link Courtesy : E Madhavan Thrissur)
A
Messages/Responses
1) Dr T V Gopalakrishnan
Grand welcome to the Sunday edition of the Collage . Weekly edition no doubt provides sufficient time to read, digest and react leisurely for many and the quality of inputs can also be improved perhaps .
I am happy to see that veterans like Dr Vasudevan a well established Economist ,Author enjoying a good readership love and affection from RBItes in particular read the Collage and provide inputs, guidance and encouraging feedbacks. I have highest regards for him and I respect him for his in-depth analytical abilities to sort out issues faced by the Indian Economy backed by historical data .
Wish the Collage a vast readership and also a sought after input by policy makers from The Government of India State Governments and RBI particularly with reference to Fiscal policy integration with Monetary policy to fight not only inflation but also the challenges the economy face to reach the 5 trillion dollar economy and realise the dream of India leading the whole world by 2047 .
Dr TVG .
2)
As the ad of a well known health drink claims, Sunday Collage has become sharper, stronger and taller in its content. Overnight it promotes poets and provides space for literary instincts to blossom for our learned contributors in their twilight years. What better description of inflation can we expect than what was exposed by our veteran Subbaraman sir, in his beautiful poem, putting all the renowned economists the world over to shame.
Wishing Sunday Collage to pursue the noble cause it serves eminently.
And a big salute to the Editor Shri Warrier.
3) R Jayakumar
Thank you for bringing out the Sunday Collage with a supplement*. It gives more material to read.
Thanks also for explaining how the pandemic days compelled you to concentrate on designing the collage daily.
Truly the lockout period has brought permanent lifestyle changes in everyone's life world over.
B
Sunday Collage : V T Panchapagesan Chennai
You taught me six types of courage!
SUNDAY COLLAGE
My dear REST
I am Sorry if I have been obsessed with productivity lately.
Sometimes, I feel like I have to be busy to feel like I am doing something worthwhile.
I forgot that growth is not always just moving forward.
It is also staying STILL.
You are my quiet Time to begin the process of Self-reflection, a necessary phase to reconsider where I am Healing and the perfect moment to just let myself
see how much Good is already in my life.
My journey is perfectly curated for my Growth, and YOU are an essential part of it.
Today I will let myself settle.
Life is Beautiful, and I have TIME.
I have seen through a thousand things in my life.
People do not know that.
I have experienced many things that have shaken me, changed me, broke me, built me and taught me to be stronger than even I thought ever I had the ability to be so.
I remember how much I have overcome and SMILE.
And keep walking because I do not have
TO PROVE TO ANYONE ELSE.
You TAUGHT ME SIX TYPES OF COURAGE :
Physical Courage :
To keep going with Resiliency, Balance & Awareness.
Social Courage :
To be myself unapologetically.
Moral Courage :
Doing the Right thing even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular.
Emotional Courage :
Feeling all our emotions Positive and Negative without Guilt or Attachment.
Intellectual Courage :
To learn, unlearn, and relearn with an open and flexible mind.
Spiritual Courage :
Living with purpose and meaning through a Heart-centered approach towards all life and self.
🌹👌🌺
V T Panchapagesan
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Vathsala Jayaraman's Column
The Hindu Open Page article :
Who Am I?
Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page
"Who am I?"
This question has been lingering in human
mind for ages.Sages like Ramana and many other
Acharyas have dealt with ‘Forget I’ concept.But today
KYC is the moola mantra everywhere.
Twenty years back ,I gave a red carpet welcome
to PC. I opened an e mail account with a password
containing a beautiful admixture of letters,numbers
and punctuation marks.
After two years ,suddenly the idiot box refused to
recognize me and raised all sorts of questions as
Pet animal,name of childhood friend etc which I had
totally forgotten.I had to open a fresh account.
Within 10 days I received tens of mails from my relatives
and friends enquiring about an unoccurred accident
in Germany in which I was stated to have been involved
and whether I needed any financial help.Some haker
had done the mischief.
Again a search for password!I got screwed up when
I had to find different passwords for different e-mail
Accounts,ATM, On line banking etc.Confusion confounded
When I used the words like Sami/Swami/Swamy/koil/kovil
Etc.Very often I forget where to place the _( underscore).
I feel that ‘password' itself is a wrong nomenclature
Since it is a‘ failword’
Being an octogenarian I tend to forget names,including
my own.I carefully note to record all the I. D.s and
passwords in a secluded place very often forgetting
Where I have recorded.
My secret box contains tens of identities- passport,
Ration card.ATM,Credit Card,Aadhar card,Employee
Identity Card,Health Insurance card etc.The list
Is endless each having an unmemorisable number
Not to talk of the Gas Allotment Letter issued
50 years back,almost in its death bed,having
turned brown and blank.Our door number has
been changed thrice under the whims and fancies
of the corporation authorities.
Bank Account number which was a tiny four digit
number has grown like Hanuman tail,challenging
even memory wizards.
A king approached a sage and asked.” I have won
over many States and lands and my treasury is full
of riches.But when can I become really happy?”
The sage replied “ you will be happy only when
‘I” die.The king in rage dragged his sword,but
the sage calmed him down and said.” By ‘I’
I mean your ego.
As an ardent devotee of Ramana whenever I
make an attempt to forget ‘I, all the multitudes
of passwords, and 15 digit numbers with various
signs and symbols start threatening me.They do
form part and parcel of my identity.They seem to
mock at me and sage Ramana’s book in my hand.
I need neither Identity card nor a password.
Don’t disturb me for KYC norms.Leave me alone.
Vathsala Jayaraman
D
Current Affairs
Media Response : M G Warrier
1) Assets Monetisation
September 18, 2022
Assets monetisation
This refers to the report "Govt to monetise assets of Rs1.62-lakh cr in FY23" (The Hindu Business Line, September 18). Even after becoming fully aware of the huge development potential, India is hesitating to exploit it for various reasons.
Beyond monetisation of public owned assets, there exists a huge amount of unmapped and unexploited resources in India. The projected monetisation plan for FY23 doesn't represent even 10 percent of the hidden wealth.
At the risk of repetition, one is tempted to remind the Finance Minister about the huge untapped domestic resources waiting to be mainstreamed and productively deployed.
They include :
1) Domestic gold stock worth about US$ 1200 billion, which, if mapped and part of which is accounted for, nation's networth and image will change.
2) Long coastal areas which have great potential for being developed into international ports, Ship-building facilities and tourists attractions.
3) Forests awaiting mapping, planned re-forestation, development of medicinal gardens in and around and commercial exploitation of forest produce without harming environment. With our huge infrastructure for Ayurvedic treatment, the scope for herbal tourism is growing.
4) Workforce in India which is in disarray for various historic reasons. They need to be realigned and upskilled to international standards which will involve a relook at and overhaul of, our higher education and training facilities.
The list is illustrative. The potential is huge.
Posterity will not pardon us if we refused to mainstream the hidden resources at this point of time.
M G Warrier
Mumbai
2) The Hindu @144
thehindu.com in Letters to the Editor — September 21, 2022
The Hindu @144*
Every change in the outlook and presentation in any publication of The Hindu group brings back nostalgic memories from a relationship beginning 1959. I received the first copy of The Hindu in a remote village in Malabar through a postal subscription, when I was still awaiting my SSLC results. The gift of postal subscription expired in a month. But, could catch up with select editorials and articles from the newspaper by getting "The Hindu Weekly Review" then published for 'readers abroad', which was available in the nearest town.
Fast forward, The Hindu group added magazines like Sportstar and Frontline and the financial daily Business Line. Occasional publications like Industrial Survey and Survey of Indian Agriculture were always collector's editions.
I still remember the day Business Line appeared in Mumbai and I introduced it to RBI with a request to subscribe for copies in the Library in our department.
Happy to see the more reader-friendly edition of HBL today and I am sure that Team Hindu, with its dedicated members and modern technology will grow further, making all publications in the family more popular and maintain the public trust built over time.
Best Wishes on the occasion of the Founders' Day.
M G Warrier
Mumbai
*Published as online comments in The Hindu
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Gandhi Jayanti : Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai
Gandhi Jayanthi is fast approaching.
Many argue that truth and non violence
preached by Gandhi are no longer applicable
to the present world.Let us dwell deep into
the issue.
Gandhiji always used the path of truth and non-violence.He sacrificed his own life for the sake of his country.
Gandhi inspires an alternative vision of politics and resistance at a time when oppression is not only getting more overt and physical but also more insidious. His ideology of nonviolence is a good point to start from.
It may not succeed, but it opens a world of possibilities and encourages us to think outside the box. His life also illustrates
how radical ideas are first dismissed,
only to be tested and embraced later.
Gandhi demonstrated to a World,
weary with wars and continuing destruction
that adherence to Truth and Non-violence is not meant for individuals alone but can be applied in global affairs too.
Gandhi's vision for the country and his
dreams for the community as a whole still hold good for India. He got the community to assimilate and reflect true values of humanity and to participate in tasks that would promote the greater good. These issues are still relevant to what free
India is and represents.
The main cause of worry today is intolerance and hatred leading to violence and it is here the values of Gandhi need to be adhered to with more passion. He is
relevant not yesterday or today but for ever!
The state and people of India are a product of what Gandhi did many years ago. Without Gandhi I have no idea what type of
country India would be. Many of his
followers have descendants who are still preaching his cause, and many
people of today live the life that he wanted. Gandhi will be relevant until the day that
India stops being a country.
A philosophy is really valid only if it helps
us here and now to cope with the multiple challenges of life, otherwise it merely becomes an academic and archival exercise for students and research scholars. Philosophy is a vibrant and dynamic
exercise that helps us maximise our inner
and outer capacities during our life on earth.
Enforcing peace would only be temporary, Perpetual peace can be achieved only
when it comes from inside.
To attain such perpetual peace 'Gandhian thought' is a must.
Mohandass Karamchand Gandhi with his deep commitment to ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (pursuit of truth)
showed that one can live by the precept of the Christ.
His life had greatly influenced the scientists too.
Einstein's own words, speaking of Mahatma Gandhi and the peaceful movement he launched in South Africa and India to gain freedom from prejudice and oppression, he said
"A leader of his people, unsupported by any outward authority; a politician whose success rests not upon craft nor on mastery of technical devices; but simply on the convincing power of his personality; a victorious fighter who has always scorned the use of force; a man of wisdom and humility; armed with resolve and inflexible consistency, who has devoted all his strength to the uplifting of his people and the betterment of their lot; a man who has confronted brutality with the dignity of a simple human being, and thus at all times risen superior.
Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”
Volumes have been written about Gandhi. The quotation from Einstein touches upon some of the salient aspects of his personality. This method of bringing about socio-political
change peacefully through moral persuasion rather than through the use of force is called satyagraha.
Even General Smuts, who always exerted iron-handed control, is said to have remarked
“I do not like your people and I do not care to assist them at all.
But what am I to do?
You help us in our days of need. How can we lay hands upon you? I often wish you
took to violence like the English strikers
and then we would know at once how
to dispose of you. But you will not injure
even the enemy.
You desire victory by self-suffering alone
and never transgress your self-imposed
limits of courtesy and chivalry. And that is what reduces us to sheer helplessness".
Whether we Indians realise this or not, this philosophy of Mahatma is spoken of not as fear or helplessness, but
as successful tactics or strategy to bring about transformation in opponents-
an admirable tantra of defence mechanism.
Thus we see the two facets of Gandhi's personality_ the spiritual inner-self forever devoted to the pursuit of truth
and the outer-self which found expression in this world as his deep love of humanity and as his untiring efforts towards its betterment.
Apart from these personal qualities that helped Gandhi face fearlessly any onslaught, including incarceration, during his satyagraha movement, he had another deep idea
that has relevance even today : He felt that no individual, no group nor nation, whether poor or rich should be without gainful employment.
Just as the poorest eking out a living
can be redeemed when provided with an opportunity to work and earn a living,
even the rich either through inheritance
or in a nation with easily accessible mineral deposits, would benefit greatly if they work hard regularly in their chosen fields of interest .
That was the Charka in 1930, but it will be something else relevant to present situation. Even today, no one
can remain merely a consumer. All of us
should be engrossed in creative effort –
this will give 'meaning' to our lives.
Thus we see that science and spirituality
both tell us that we should work to sustain the positive universal evolution, or, in other words, follow karma and 'dharma’ according to the Hindu scriptures.
This incessant effort towards peace–
which is essential for this positive evolution is the essential teaching of Mahathma. This method is not restricted to the
oppressed and the poor but to the rich and powerful as well.
To summarize, we see that the reductionist approach of science has clearly pointed out our connectivity with the rest of this
vast Universe and events that occurred in the depths of time.
This extra axiom allows us bridge the gap between science and spirituality and gives meaning to lives dedicated to bringing
about peace and tranquility in this world and to lives engaged in the creation of beautiful art, sensitive poetry and yes, to lives engrossed in science bringing us ever closer to truth.
This is what Gandhi stood for.
Gandhiji said a strict 'No' to the following seven :
1.Politics Without Principles.
2.Wealth Without Work.
3.Commerce Without Morality.
4.Education Without Character.
5.Pleasure Without Conscience.
6.Science Without Humanity.
7.Worship Without Sacrifice.
Don't you think that these essential principles hold good for ever, not only to India but to the entire Universe, not withstanding
any technical development, space researches and globalization ?
Vathsala Jayaraman
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Sunday Poetry*
A beautiful poem by the Brazilian poet: Mário de Andrade:
"My Soul Is In A Hurry."
I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live than the time I have lived so far.
I have more past than future.
I feel like that boy who had a bowl of cherries. At first, he gobbled them, but when he realized there were only few left, he began to taste them intensely.
I no longer have time to deal with mediocrity.
I do not want to be in meetings where flamed egos parade.
I am bothered by the envious, who seek to discredit the most able, to usurp their places, coveting their seats, talent, achievements and luck.
I do not have time for endless conversations,
useless discussions about the lives of others who are not part of mine.
I no longer have the time to handle or manage the sensitivities of people who, despite their chronological age, are immature.
I hate to confront those who struggle for power, and those who do not debate the content, just the labels.
My time has become scarce to debate labels. I want the inner essence.
My soul is in a hurry.
Not many cherries in my bowl.
I want to live close to people who are "human" - humans who laugh at their own weaknesses; and away from those became smug and overconfident with their triumphs, and
away from those filled with self-importance.
The essentials are what make life worthwhile. And for me, the essentials are more than enough!
Yes, I’m in a hurry. I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.
I do not intend to waste any of the remaining cherries.
I am sure they will be exquisite, much more than those eaten so far.
*Shared by Dr T V Gopalakrishnan
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Books
1) Books on memory loss*
https://electricliterature.com/7-books-that-grapple-with-memory-and-loss/
One day, suddenly you find yourself standing in a different corner of your home, another room perhaps, no longer certain of why you had come here in the first place, to get something perhaps—but what it was you can no longer recall, and so you stand a little while longer. Perhaps you partially retrace your steps, recrossing the threshold, replaying your thoughts as best you can, trying to substitute faithful reenactment for remembrance. At last, if the stars have aligned, it hits you—ah, scissors, I came here to get a pair of scissors…
For something we trust so implicitly, memory too often fails us. We forget faces, miss appointments, lose car keys. Luckily, our individual memories do not have a monopoly on our access to the past. We safeguard the vanished past with objects, texts, tools. In doing so we create a constellation of remembrance, an inscription of our past upon the present.
*Why this is squeezed in here?
The short Malayalam movie 4-C (link shared by E Madhavan Thrissur) is about memory loss 🙏-Warrier)
2) Die Empty : R Jayakumar shared some comments
▫️One of the most beautiful books to read is "Die Empty" by Todd Henry.*
▫️The author was inspired and got this idea of writing this book while attending a Business Meeting.
▫️When the director asked the audience: "Where is the richest land in the world?"
▫️One of the audience answered: "Oil-rich Gulf states."
▫️Another added: "Diamond mines in Africa."
▫️Then the director said: "No it is the cemetery. Yes, it is the richest land in the world, because millions of people have departed, "they have died" and they carried many valuable ideas that did not come to light and benefited others. It is all in the cemetery where they are buried."
▫️Inspired by this answer, Todd Henry wrote his book "Die empty." Where he did his best to motivate people to pour out their ideas and potential energies in their communities and turn them into something useful before it is too late.
▫️The most beautiful of what he said in his book is: "Do not go to your grave and carry inside you the best that you have.
✨Always choose to Die Empty.
▫️The TRUE meaning of this expression, is to die empty of all the goodness that is within you. Deliver it to the world, before you leave.
✨If you have an idea perform it.
✨If you have a knowledge give it out.
✨If you have a goal achieve it.
*Know More :
https://fourminutebooks.com/die-empty-summary/
1-Sentence-Summary : Die Empty talks about the importance of following your dreams and aspirations, living a meaningful, active life, and using your native gifts to create a legacy and inspire others to tap into their own potential as well.
H
Leisure
Have we reached Madurantakam?
(Shared by Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai)
An Old Lady was travelling from Chennai to Neyveli. After a while the Lady asked the Conductor whether they had reached Madurantakam. He replied, 'No Amma, still lot of time'. After some time when the Bus stopped at a stop, the Lady asked Loudly if they had reached Madurantakam. This went on three or four times. The Conductor got annoyed and rudely replied, don't shout at every stop. I will tell you when we reach your place. The Old Lady was now satisfied that she would not miss her stop and dozed off. When she woke up they had reached Vizhupuram. She asked the Conductor if they had crossed Madurantakam. The Conductor realised his folly and said apologetically that they had crossed Madurantakam and reached Vizhupuram. He blamed her for sleeping and said she should have been alert. Now the Old Lady got really annoyed and made a ruckus saying, what nonsense, you told me you would tell me when we reach Madurantakam and trusting you, I dozed off. Soon the other Passengers in the Bus supported the Old Lady and asked the Conductor to take back the Bus to Madurantakam for dropping the Old Lady. When the Conductor felt the Heat of all the Passengers, he had no alternative but to return to Madurantakam. He said, Amma we have reached Madurantakam, get down fast. The Lady stood up and took out her Bag from the Overhead Carrier and took out a Tablet and drank some Water and sat down. The Conductor got furious and asked if she was getting down or not. The Old Lady said, "Why should I get down here when I have to go to Neyveli. My Daughter had told me to take the BP Tablet when the Bus reached Madurantakam. I have taken my Tablet, now you can start the Bus".
How about the Conductor's BP now?
Vathsala Jayaraman
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