Warrier's Collage on Sunday April 7, 2024

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, April 7, 2024 Good Morning Happy Birthday to all having Birthday during the current week. Ayurarogyasaukhyam and Best Wishes for all. Last week, some editions Collage carried a note saying that my Blog subscription is being discontinued and the link www.warriersblog.com may soon become inaccessible. As of April 1, 2024, the Blog had views asunder : All time672628 Today952 Yesterday967 This month952 Last month17211 On a suggestion from my son Kiran Warrier, I had a second thought and the website will be live for few more years. I will continue to post new editions of Collage at the Blog. Nice Day M G Warrier A Guddi Padwa : April 9, 2024 https://youtu.be/NYBqUZHaMcE?feature=shared B Collage Books Goat Life : Benjamin Goat Days https://amzn.in/d/gffgf0J Najeeb's dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape of his village and of his loving family haunt Najeeb whose only solace is the companionship of goats. In the end, the lonely young man contrives a hazardous scheme to escape his desert prison. Goat Days was published to acclaim in Malayalam and became a bestseller. One of the brilliant new talents of Malayalam literature, Benyamin’s wry and tender telling transforms this strange and bitter comedy of Najeeb’s life in the desert into a universal tale of loneliness and alienation. Latest Book By M G Warrier Open Book of Happy Memories : ( and Other Stories ) https://amzn.in/d/5gzySh6 C Collage in Classroom : Member Faculty : Vathsala Jayaraman* Let's learn some new words Come on, let us learn some interesting facts related to "Books" and reading. Even people who are branded as voracious readers have difficulty in understanding a few of the following words. 1 Dog's Ear : While reading a book when we get up we fold the corner of the page we were reading. That is known as Dog's Ear. Corner Fold. 2 Librocubicularist : The person who reads book lying on the bed. Idle Reader. 3 Epeolatry : A person who worships words. Tries to string out the sweetness from every word. This is found mainly with Linguists. Honey Tongue. 4 Logophile : A person who is fascinated with words. Words Fan 5 Bibliosmia : The smell of old books. Record Room Smell. 6 Book bosomed : A person who cannot stay a moment without books. Book Holder. 7 Omnilegend : A person who reads all types of books without judging the subject. Book Lover 8 BallyCumber : Books which are half read. These books are called BallyCumber. Unfinished Books 9 Tsundoku : It is a Japanese word. There is no English word for it. This means that after purchase the book was not opened even once. 10 Princep : The first printed copy of any book is called Princep. First Copy. 11 Sesquipedalian : A word which has many Syllables such as ses/qui/pe/da/li/an. Confusing Word. 12 Colophon : The spine of the book or where the publishers logo is seen. 13 Bibliclasm : To spoil a book knowingly. Book Review. 14 Fascine : Part, 1st part, 2nd part etc. A book which is published in many parts such Encyclopedia Britannica, Oxford Dictionary etc. 15 Afflicted : After reading a book if a person feels like crying at the end but is unable to do so. This feeling is called afflicted. Pain in the neck. 16 Bookklempt : When you have finished reading the last episode and you know that there is no other episode to read but you are unable to digest this truth, this feeling is known as Bookklempt. Unfinished. 17 Chaptigue : The tired feeling which you get in the morning after reading a book for the whole night is known as Chaptigue. Fatigue. 18 Delitrium : The good feeling which you get from the smell of a newly purchased book. 19 Madgedy : Repeatedly reading a sad story and hoping that the end will be different. 20 Mehnertia : After reading a book for sometime and then reading it from the start all over again because you forgot what you were reading. 21 Rageammed : When you advocate your friends to read a book which you liked and they inform you that they have already read the book and they did not like it. The feeling which have at that moment is known as Rageammend. 22 Swapshame : When after reading a book for sometime you think that there was another book which you liked and you are in a dilemma which one to read first, this condition of yours is known as Swapshame. You can now understand that even if you acquire knowledge by reading books, many of these words were unknown to you. *Vathsala Jayaraman is an RBI Retiree settled in Chennai. Herself a writer, is in her eighties now and very active in groups. D Collage Movie Goat Life, An Epic Movie Watched Malayalam edition of the movie Aadu Jeevitham (Goat Life) in a Mumbai Cinema on the first Sunday following its release. After the first movie I watched sitting on the sand-spread floor of a thatched Jayabharat Talkies in my village in 1954, seventy years have passed. That was Tamil movie "Marmaveeran" and I was watching a night show with friends. Then the ticket cost was an unaffordably high 3.75 Annas. Yesterday the cost of ticket was a reasonable Rs400. Then what is common between the two experiences? Though I might have watched hundreds of movies in between, these were the two I watched without missing a single shot. The awareness about the efforts by Team Goat Life made me sit through the 3 hours without a blink. The narrative is unique not because it tells the story of exploitation of a helpless human being by someone who is in a better position. Such exploitation is perennial world over. There may be scale differences. Here the story is about a real life character who survived the torture to tell his experience to the outside world. A movie maker who came across the story identified it as a fit narrative for making a movie. The decade and a half that followed saw him making a team and moving forward putting together the movie brick by brick. E Media Response : M G Warrier April 6, 2024 RBI's assumptions and predictions This refers to your editorial "A touch of optimism"(The Hindu Business Line, April 6). A semblance of monetary policy stability across major central banks together with a short break in domestic pressures because of election fever allowed RBI to play it cool at April 2024 MPC meeting. The result is visible in the views on growth and inflation expressed in the monetary policy announcement on April 5. Still, analysts have read between the lines and speculation about a rate-cut season beginning October 2024 is going round on day one. Hopefully, RBI has taken PM's jocular suggestion at RBI@90 meeting of top brass on April 1 to come up with new ideas by the time the new government takes charge in June. Helping a retail market to evolve could be the first step. Managing domestic gold stock and other surplus assets like unutilised real estate space etc could follow. M G Warrier Mumbai II Chat Room April 2, 2024 RBI as enabler of economic development This refers to the report "RBI's Now Become an Enabler of the Market Economy" (ET, April 2). Prime Minister Modi had attended the function organised by RBI when the institution celebrated its 81st Birthday on April 2, 2015. Since then the institution and its relationship with GOI have become stronger and warmer. The awareness that a strong central bank can be of immense support for economic development has helped government in modulating its approach to banking policy and the PM's response acknowledged this acceptance in rich measure. Prime Minister Modi concluded his address to the top brass of RBI and select invitees at the function organised by RBI when the institution celebrated its 90th Anniversary on April 1, 2024, with the following observations : “I am busy with elections for the next 100 days. So, you have a lot of time to think about new policies,” (applause from the audience). He continued :“This is because, right from the day after my swearing-in, you will be flooded with work.” During the 100 days jocularly referred to as "thinking time" for RBI, one hopes the central bank will introspect and come up with new ideas, also for strengthening its capabilities, by continuing its 20th Century efforts of establishing new institutions to transfer some of its developmental and supportive roles to enable it to concentrate on the core central banking functions including Banking Regulation. M G WARRIER Mumbai F A message to remember Beautiful behaviour* In a meeting, Guru ji asked a 30-year-old youth to stand up during his discourse. - You are walking on Juhu Chowpatty in Mumbai and a beautiful girl is coming from the front, so what will you do? The young man said - She will be seen, and he will start seeing her personality. Guru ji asked - After that girl has moved forward, so will you look back too? The boy said - yes, if my wife is not with me . (everyone laughs in the meeting) Guru ji again asked - Tell me how long will you remember that beautiful face? The young man said May be for 5 - 10 minutes, until another beautiful face appears. Guru ji said to the young man - now just imagine.. you are going from Jaipur to Mumbai and I gave you a packet of books and said that this packet should be delivered to such a great person in Mumbai... You went to his house in Mumbai to deliver the packets. When you saw his house, you came to know that he is a billionaire. 10 vehicles are parked in the porch of his bunglow and 5 watchmen are standing outside the house. You sent the information of Your arrival alongwith the packet, then that gentleman himself came out and greeted you. He Took the packet from you. Then when you started to leave the place, you were requested very humbly by him to come inside his home. He sat beside you and fed You hot food. While you were returning , he asked you - "How have you come to my house ?" You said - "In the local train." He asked his driver to take you to your destination and as soon as you were about to reach your place, that billionaire dignitary made a call to you and asked - Brother, Have you reached comfortably..!! Now tell me how long will you remember that great man?" The young man said - "Guruji! I will never forget that person in my life, till I die in life." Addressing the gathering through the youth, Guru Ji said - "This is the reality of life." "Beautiful face is remembered for a short time, but beautiful behavior is remembered for life." That's the guru mantra of life. Concentrate on the beauty of your behavior more than the beauty of your face and body. Life will become enjoyable for yourself and unforgettable, inspirational for others. *Shared by Vathsala Jayaraman G Collage Leisure Real Life SWAMINATHAN AIYAR* In 1992, I wrote a book titled "Towards Globalisation". I did not realize at the time that this was going to be the history of my family. Last week, we celebrated the wedding of my daughter, Pallavi. A brilliant student, she had won scholarships to Oxford University and the London School of Economics. In London, she met Julio, a young man from Spain. The two decided to take up jobs in Beijing, China. Last week, they came over from Beijing to Delhi to get married. The wedding guests included 70 friends from North America, Europe and China. That may sound totally global, but arguably my elder son Shekhar has gone further. He too won a scholarship to Oxford University, and then taught for a year at a school in Colombo. Next he went toToronto, Canada, for higher studies. There he met a German girl, Franziska. They both got jobs with the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA. This meant that they constantly travelled on IMF business to various countries. Shekhar advised and went on missions to Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Kyrgyzstan and Laos. Franziska went to Rwanda,Tajikistan, and Russia. They interrupted these perambulations to get married in late 2003. My younger son, Rustam, is only 15. Presumably he will study in Australia, marry a Nigerian girl, and settle in Peru. Readers might think that my family was born and bred in a jet plane. The truth is more prosaic. Our ancestral home is Kargudi, a humble, obscure village in Tanjore district, Tamil Nadu. My earliest memories of it are as a house with no toilets, running water, or pukka road. When we visited, we disembarked from the train at Tanjore, and then travelled 45 minutes by bullock cart to reach the ancestral home. My father was one of six children, all of whom produced manychildren (I myself had three siblings). So, two generations later, the size of the Kargudi extended family (including spouses) is over 200. Of these, only three still live in the village. The rest have moved across India and across the whole world, from China to Arabia to Europe to America. This one Kargudi house has already produced 50 American citizens. So, dismiss the mutterings of those who claim that globalisation means westernisation. It looks more like Aiyarisation, viewed from Kargudi. What does this imply for our sense of identity? I cannot speak for the whole Kargudi clan, which ranges from rigid Tamil Brahmins to beef-eating, pizza-guzzling, hip-hop dancers. But for me, the Aiyarisation of the world does not mean Aiyar domination. Nor does it mean Aiyar submergence in a global sea. It means acquiring multiple identities, and moving closer to the ideal of a brotherhood of all humanity. I remain quite at home sitting on the floor of the Kargudi house on a mat of reeds, eating from a banana leaf with my hands. I feel just as much at home eating noodles in China, steak in Spain, teriyaki in Japan and cous-cous in Morocco. I am a Kargudi villager, a Tamilian, a Delhi-wallah, an Indian, a Washington Redskins fan, and a citizen of the world, all at the same time and with no sense of tension or contradiction. When I see the Brihadeeswara Temple in Tanjore, my heart swells and I say to myself "This is mine." I feel exactly the same way when I see the Church of Bom Jesus in Goa, or the Jewish synagogue in Cochin, or the Siddi Sayed mosque in Ahmedabad : these too are mine. I have strolled so often through the Parks at Oxford University and along the canal in Washington, DC, that they feel part of me. As my family multiplies and intermarries, I hope one day to look at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona and Rhine river in Germany and think, "These too are mine." We Aiyars have taken a step toward the vision of John Lennon. Imagine there's no country. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. My father's generation was the first to leave the village, and loosen its regional shackles. My father became a chartered accountant in Lahore, an uncle became a hotel manager in Karachi, and we had an aunt in Rangoon. My generation loosened the shackles of religion. My elder brother married a Sikh, my younger brother married a Christian, and I married a Parsi. The next generation has gone a step further, marrying across the globe. Globalisation for me is not just the movement of goods and capital, or even of Aiyars. It is a step towards Lennon's vision of no country. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope one day you'll join us. And the world will be one. * Brother of Mani Shankar Iter . (This is another story shared by Vathsala Jayaraman)