Discoursers on various scriptures come up with wonderful interpretations, depending on the audience. A la 'Nostradamus' interpretation. The Nostradamus prophesies can be attributed to many events that happened subsequently, and be still valid. Ditto for the interpretation of the scriptures. This is not, by any way, discounting the treasure of wisdom buried in our Scriptures. The Upanishads and the Vedas were not the thought process of a single person, but rather a collection of thoughts of many over centuries. Perhaps, someone shall do a similar compilation of the material in the World Wide Web for posterity.
What I am posting in this blog is nothing new. It has been said before.
Stenography is an art that is almost dead with the advent of Word Processors. But I am of the generation who had the fortune to watch a top quality stenographer at work and how they take down notations, and reproduce the content in a letter format with hardly any error. Till late 1990s, top quality stenographers were much sought after. Many Palghat Brahmins from poor family, migrated to the then Bombay during mid 1990s, learned typing and shorthand, worked their way up the corporate ladder, and created the foundation for future generations, who are all in top positions in India and abroad now. Palghat Brahmins fondness for Lord Ganapathy is well known. No function starts without invoking Lord Vigneswara. Is it because Ganapathy is the first known Stenographer? The story goes that Veda Vyasa asked Ganapathy to write down the Mahabharatha to be dictated by Vyasa. Ganapathy wanted to get out of it, but had to agree with a proviso that Vyasa should not stop the recitation at any point of time, doing so will result in Ganapathy being released from his obligations. Ganapathy knew it was impossible for Vyasa to conclude the recitation in one sitting. But Vyasa was one up on him. He put a counter proposal that Ganapathy should not take down any of his slokas, unless he understands the meaning of each verse. This led to an interesting battle of wits between the two, which resulted in the creation of the wonderful epic.
I don't know whether the later day Managers insisted their Stenographers understood the meaning of what was being dictated to him, but what I know for a certainty that most of these Stenographers were very close associates of the Top Management, privy to Company secrets, and were at times more knowledgable than even their bosses. The Top Managers come and go, but the Stenographer served these Companies for decades, and were virutually a Knowledge Repository, who did their duty diligently day in and day out, but hardly got rewarded for their efforts. They struggled to make both ends meet, but drilled sound values in their kids, gave them good education, and left this world content, that they had created the necessary infrastructure which took their family to greater heights.
All Ganapathy's, their presiding diety's blessings??? Perhaps.
to be continued.......................
