Is the current generation moving away from Ithihasams -1

"The current generation is moving away from Indian Ithihasas. They don't think much of it, but rather find the Greek and Roman mythological characters more alluring"

 

Is this question valid?

 

There are many reasons for the Indians moving away from our Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharatham and Ramayanam.

 

The Indian (by which I mean 'Hindu', we are still a Hindu Majority country by a wide margin) society has changed over the last many decades. The Hindu joint family has broken up, leaving only nucleus units and the dwellings clustered (like agraharams) based on commonality in culture, which was essentially temple based is no longer to be seen.

 

The Joint Family and the Temple based Clusters went a long way in creating an interest, awareness and knowledge about our ithihasams to the next generation.

 

The ithihasams, though they are in written format, was handed down from generation to generation through 'vaa mozhi' (Orally). Stories that kindled the imagination of the younger lot was used to convey the underlying philosophy of good and evil, and the need for a disciplined life. The elders in the Joint Family played a big role in perpetuating this legacy. The Grand father or Grand mother, or elderly Aunts narrated wonderful stories in the night, when there was no TV or Radio. This was either as a narrative or through lovely songs. If a child is scared, he was asked to recite the ten names of Arjunan mentioned in Mahabharatha to ward of fear "Arjuna, Phaalgun, Paartha, Jishnu, Keeriti, Shwetavaahan, Vibhatsu, Vijayan, Savyashachee and Dhananjayan". And the story of the mighty Archer was told to the child, with an assurance that Arjunan will be always there in case of any danger. Is it any wonder the child then gets hooked to the epic?

 

Likewise the children are told that Anjaneyan can do the impossible and it pays to be like him. His stories are told in an awe inspiring manner, how he lifted the Sanjeevini Mountain, How he jumped 100 Yojanas to reach Lanka, his exploits in Lanka, his love and devotion towards Sreerama.

 

There is an extract from a poem in malayalam,

 

"Vaarana veeran thalayattu, villattu

Veeran Bhagadattan thante kazhuthattu

Nalamathanathan vaalumarinjittu

Kolahalathote poyithu banavum"

 

I read this first in a childrens magazine called 'Thalir'. This depicts how Arjunan's arrow first cuts the head of Bhagadattans massive elephant, then the Bow of Bhagadattan, then his head and finally the raised tail. The depiction of the arrow finally exiting as 'Kolahalathote poyithu banavum' meaning 'the arrow went with a bang (after creating chaos)' clearly makes you wonder about the skill of the archer, and the power of his skills.

 

The above are only by way of illustration. For conveying every single moral concept, we had an icon from our ithihasams - Sreerama the uttama purusha, who sacrificed everything to honour his fathers pledge, Bhishma who took a vow to remain a bachelor to please his father, Harischantran for honesty, Nalan for overcoming adversity, Bhiman for sheer power and valour, .... the list is endless.

 

As a child, I did not have the luxury of hearing stories being told by elders in the family, but I read and read. I was exposed to Mali Ramayanam and Mahabharatham when I was as young as 8-9. I was intrigued by Hanuman, Mareechan (Golden Deer), Sreeramans  ability to covert grass into a powerful arrow, the various types of arrows with special powers, Arjunans exploits, Krishnans scheming, Yudhishtirans Rajadharmam, etc. Later on, though not in the same genre Kottarathil Sankunnis 'Aithihyamala' and 'Kathasarithsagaram' got me hooked to stories, and helped develop the story telling ability in me, one of my pride possession. These stories  broadened by imagination, allowed by mind to wander and made me a better person. Fortunately for me, I had a father who had similar interests on whom I could bounce my ideas, though he couldn't tell a story for nuts.

 

Later on the story telling ability of mine, gave me a huge advantage while Teaching MBA Students and even while working, when I would more often than not use a story from Ithihasams to get a point across...................................to be continued

Let the Dogs Bark

The left liberals, Congress party and the errant crooked English media, in cahoots, have found very little to criticize the Government during the past two years.

 

Hence, their eagerness in making mountains out of many mole hills.

 

The UPA Government was virtually being run by foreign and NRI Consultants. 350 of them were found to be employed in key positions affecting policy making, whose only objective was to provide 'advisory' that is more often than not detriment to the growth of India, while serving foreign powers interests - They were given the boot by Modi, once he took over

 

Then there were guys who lived abroad, earned a fat packet of our tax payers money and bitched about India and Indians all the time, like Amartya Sen, who headed Nalanda University, and hardly contributed anything.

 

Now we have the case of Raghuram Rajan, the RBI Governor. Over the past 2 months, there has been a concerted campaign to get him a second term. Every day the newspapers were flooded with articles on how great he is and how much he has achieved as RBI Governor, and why it would be doomsday for India if he were to be removed. Rajan joined UPA Government way back in 2007 and was its Economic Advisor, before he became RBI Governor in 2013, when Congress knew they were not going to return to power. It is surprising that no one is questioning his legacy as Economic Advisor to UPA Government, when all the scams took place and the economy was almost broken beyond repair. Even as RBI Governor, he has done precious little to solve the critical NPA issue so bank, and was not in alignment with Governments policy of spurring growth. By not tackling the NPA issue aggressively, and holding interest rates high, which killed MSMEs, and by voicing his opinion on issues that did not concern him like the silly 'Award Wapazi' campaign, Rajan was at odds with the Government. It is to be noted that one of the most media savvy guys like Rajan, kept absolutely quiet when all his chamchas were writing the articles in the newspaper supporting him, while he could have put a stop to the whole sordid drama with a single statement that it is the Government's prerogative to give him an extension. It is only when he was told discreetly but categorically that he will not be given an extension, he leaked his internal letter to his colleagues stating he is going back to Academics.

 

One must give lot of credit to Modi. He could have easily removed Ragharam Rajan when he took power (in fact Rajan, being a UPA Appointee, should have put in his papers to allow the new Government to have their man in place in 2014, which he didn't) but Modi allowed him to continue, as he did with many other UPA Appointees, till their terms ended or till it is proven they cannot perform to the new Government's expectations. Modi also refused to be drawn into the controversy and told that Government will take a decision by September, when Rajan's term ends. He did show his statesmanship.

 

An extension to anyone, be it Amartya Sen or Raghuram Rajan, is not a right.

 

No country in the world would like to have a US Green Card holder (which is just one step away from getting a US Citizenship) to hold such a sensitive post like the Central Bank Governor.

 

The surprising fact is that he was appointed in the first place, rather him not being given and extension.

 

Have you ever noticed dogs. They bark and chase your vehicle till they reach the boundary ear marked by them for themselves. Then then retreat, only to chase the next vehicle.

 

The English language media crooks are like these dogs. They will have to retreat now, till they get the next unsuspecting passerby.

Sports - Random thoughts

Mohammed Ali's death - In my younger days, Ali was a hero to me. But later, when I started reading more and more about him, my thoughts changed. I felt he was a great fighter alright, but his image was built around marketing himself, a la M S Subbulakshmi. Maybe we have to give him credit for showing the world that sportsmen could be marketed as a Brand. Ali was perhaps the first true Marketing Brand.

 

Dunga being Sacked as Brazil Coach - Dunga was a World Cup winning Captain, and a solid defender, but frankly he is not the right Coach for Brazil. He is dour, defensive minded and packs his side with defensive mid fielders. True, he doesn't have the talent some of his predecessors had, but that is not an excuse. He was a failure first time around, and he is a failure now. I still wonder why Brazil is not looking at Zico as an option.

 

Dhoni's pig headedness - The whole purpose of taking a second string team to Zimbabwe was to test the bench strength, and Zimbabwe has been underwhelming to say the least. But what is baffling is Dhoni being adamant in retaining the same team for all the three ODIs, with the exception of Fazal replacing Karun Nair for the final ODI, and refusing to change the batting order to give Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhan a go in the second ODI. The pace bowling trio of Bumrah, Sran and Dhawal has delivered in the first 2 ODI. At least one or two of them could have been rested for the final match. Likewise Rahul has had two good knocks. His place could have been given to another reserve batsman. Frankly, it is time for Dhoni to step down from the Captaincy of ODI and T20 teams.

 

Indian Cricket Coach Selection - At last Anurag Thankur is doing something right by inviting applications for the post of Indian Cricket Coach in a transparent manner. Even he must have been surprised at the number of applicants. Sad to see Dravid not applying, but I presume he is more keen to work with U-19 boys, which is not a bad idea. Also, he might be waiting for Dhoni to retire, having played under him. Kumble throwing his hat into the ring is a welcome surprise, and I do tend to back him than either Shastri or Sandeep Patil

 

Euro 2016 - The first round of group matches were quite exciting. Lot of attacking football which is a welcome change, as Europeans tend to play a bit dourly as a rule. It was fun to see little Island pricking the vanity of Ronaldo, an A1 self centred egotist if any. Germany looked good, and so did Croatia. Italy was technically superb. Things will get more lively in the subsequent rounds.

Left Arm Chinaman Googly Bowlers are rare

It is a mystery why we have not had too many Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowlers in Cricket.

 

I was reminded of this when I saw Shival Kowshik, Kuldip Yadav and Brad Hogg bowl in the IPL.

 

The Chinaman-Googly bowler (called after the first of the ilk, Ellis Achong, who was of Chinese Origin and played for West Indies, and who used to bowl the occasional Chinaman) is the left handed counter part of the right arm Leg spin bowler. We haven't seen many. Paul Adams was one, and before him Gary Sobers could bowl it, though he could and did bowl everything, pace or spin, left handed.

 

Though leg spinners themselves are rare, we did have some wonderful bowlers like Bill O'reilly, Clarrie Grimmet, Bob Simpson, Subhash Gupte, B.S.Chandrasekhar, Anil Kumble and of course, Shane Warne, to name a few. It is a difficult art to master, the margin of error low. But this is more than compensated by the variations the wrist spinner can get and the natural bounce of the forward spinning ball. They also have the advantage of their stock ball, the leg break, turning from leg to off for a right handed batsmen, which is an obvious advantage as it can pitch on the blind spot of the batsmen.

 

Maybe the reason why the Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowler did not flourish is because they turn the ball into the right handed batsmen (majority of the batsmen are right handed), while the normal left arm spinner turns it from leg to off, giving him an edge. In addition, with the added bounce offered by the Chinaman bowler, it is easy for a right hander to cut and pull if the bowler errs in length.

 

But this doesn't hold water really. Even the stock ball of the Chinaman bowler is not easy to tackle, as it comes in to the right hander, bounces more making him a sitting duck for a bat pad catch at short leg. And the left arm googly can take the ball away from the right hander, creating opportunities for a catch behind the wicket or a stumping.

 

With Cricket Academies flooding various countries, will be see a real world class Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowler? I wish we do, because then it will inspire lot of young left arm spinners to take up wrist spin bowling and kindle the interest, just like how Shane Warne, with his bowling and personality, inspired a generation of leg spinners.