Mid-term Anthology

My encounters with verse this term were mostly of the order of doggerel. Here’s a few worth display. Written in the last few minutes before I left for home last term...

Thanatos

Water in my cupped hands
Trickles swiftly by,
I sit by myself waiting
For my time to die.

Last term it was HRP, this term, SRM. And so the cycle continued...

Amen

Adder's bladder, eagle's eye,
Roofie tainted apple pie,
The merciful YHWH hath looked my way,
Now my days go happily by.

Also written in the same class, but expressing dismay over PRD (tools), BFM (terror), Marketing (Ronin) and STM (games), was this.

Alas!

Tools of terror, Ronin's games,
Sissy knights & brazen dames,
The poetess me is made undead,
By this topsy-turvy chivalry.

I was sitting next to Mausami, hoping to keep her amused with these verses, when I happened to look back and found that the interest of even the twin rubies was ebbing away.

But who?

Sparkling water loses shine,
And muffles his gay song.
The season I try to keep amused,
But I can’t hold on long.

Another day, another uninteresting lecture, I wrote my notes on a brand new notepad. The title for this poem stems from the fact that I found an interpretation for this poem (3 actually) after I wrote it.

Hermeneutics

Colours on a tinted paper,
Rarely appear true,
But lack of paleness scarce affects,
The richness of their hue.

Same lecture, different theme - the सुभाषितानि

Maxims

The darkness of ignorance,
Doth many fancies make,
A halter thus innocuous,
Appears as a snake.

Fear inspires reverence,
Reverence desire,
All hope of seeing light,
Is extinguished by such fire.

In striking similarity to my HRP course, I found myself unaccompanied by my trusty file in many an SRM class, the first time due to the fact that I’d just returned from the Visarjan of the Goddess. Fortunately, every time this has happened, I have managed to make a fair and duly embellished copy of the notes. The yields:

Full Moon

I first glimpsed my true love,
Alas on such a fateful day,
Although my shafts had hit him true,
They’d wounded him the wrong way.

The Refuge

Every once in a while, comes a time,
The most prosaic must resort to rhyme,
When the mind cares not for the mores of the gross,
And the soul is lost in depths sublime.

For the uninitiated, in Greek Mythology, Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) are twins.

Hypnos

O Somnus Deo, Lord of rest,
Don't you put my powers to test,
For how may anyone well-disposed,
Refuse thy charms and make protest?

In an inanely trite STM guest lecture on entrepreneurship, it hit me harder than before, that I wrote just to keep the cogs in my head running...

Quality

I'm bored and sleepy,
I really need to leave,
I can't help but writing,
In such quality.

My prose is dying,
My verse doggerel,
And yet I can't stop writing,
Such dense drivel.

My eyes are drooping,
My hand is disarrayed,
But I've got to keep writing,
Or I'll be dismayed.

Another lecture, different passions, different meters...

Poverty

Heartstrings ache & gizzard growls,
At the sight of pleasure, scowls,
How may I faultless my soul placate,
And reconcile to my poverty.

Jealousy

When the scorching hype,
Burns not the actor so lit,
Shadows cross my life.

And one fine day, I was suddenly the most sought after person. It was RAJAXI night, and I found myself without pen or paper or Bare Act in a Law presentation class. So I borrowed some, and decided to keep myself engaged. Four doggerel verses later, something sensible came out. The first and last one describes peoples' various attempts at creativity, and the reactions that some of them face.

Classroom Battles

Beautiful minds fill the rows
flanked by comrades.
Armed by notions several
they fight for grades.

Attempt at Sense

Ennui pushes my pen
Inanity flows as ink
Such is the sorry result
When I write before I think

The Law of Pleadings

So if you got a valid point,
Don't you bogey that joint,
For the law of pleading is misleading,
And will all your pleas ignore.

Cows with Guns

Towering folks short on guts
Face cow-dung
Big promises and bigger buts
Will be hung

After that I swore to end my romance with doggerel. This means that I rarely give in to my urge to write nowadays. But then promises like that don’t last long. Here’s one describing a friend’s SRM ppt.

Measures

Water minus fluidity,
Chills me to my funny bones.
I bare my teeth in mirth,
To conceal my slaked thirst.

Sometimes the sight of ointment (salve) can bring you pain. It happened to me, making me write this...

Paucity

The sight of alien salve
Opens sore wounds.
Yet even lowly salt
Remains to them elusive.

All in all, life's been good. Winter has given up the stage to summer, with spring visible only in the deciduousity of the deodar trees. I've given in to the dangerous habit of extreme sleepiness, while ensuring that no one, not even me, can blame yours truly for lack of diligence and enterprise. As the countdown to the end of this term starts, I wish all my companions (willing or no) in the journey of life, as much self-awareness, as they can tolerate.

The Legend of Ram... The Khiladi

The story of Ram, like one luminary rightly pointed out, is themed after what later came to be known as the archetypal theory i.e. the fight between Good and Evil. But long before the story existed, or the character itself, there was just a name - that of Ram.

The first lesson in Sanskrit grammar is of noun declension. And the first masculine noun to be traditionally taught is the word Raama, and the first feminine noun, Ramaa (Another of Sita's names). The reason is far from religious. Both words come from the root Ram (pronounced rum) which means 'to play, or to have fun'. The noun form therefore means 'player'. The idea is, that knowledge of grammar is the key to be a player of words, hence the choice of the first noun.

How this secular and seemingly innocuous word took on the power to invoke both devotion and hatred, hatred strong enough to threaten our noble republic is what I intend to discuss today.

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The religious system that goes by the name of Hinduism today, is what a theologist would classify as 'polytheistic', i.e. worshiping multiple divine entities, which are parts or representatives of a single Almighty being/consciousness. But history is proof, however, that these entities have always vied for dominance over public consciousness, in the form of cults and cult wars.

Most ancient polytheistic religions, like the Egyptian for instance, were wiped out largely because of the weaknesses induced by constant warring between the cults. And in the same fashion, Hinduism too was once threatened.

The Hindu religion was (and still is) composed of numerous cults, of which finally six had dominated (one exclusive to the south of India). Four of the deities involved were reconciled, by giving them the status of family, i.e. Shiva, Shakti and their sons Ganesha and Karthikeya. The Solar Cult reconciled with all five cults. This resulted in the formation of essentially two remaining factions that clamoured for domination - the Shaiva and the Vaishnava. These cults fought possibly the bloodiest of the battles ever fought in the name of religion, easily surpassing the eight crusades combined. It is in these conditions that the Name was born.

Now the vaishnavas' chief and most powerful mantra was the asthakshari "Om namo naaraayanaaya", of which the essential, or original syllable was the syllable "raa". The shaiva equivalent was the panchakshari "Om namah shivaya", of which the original syllable was the anusvara sound "m". Pronouncing these powerful sounds together resulted in the word "Raama" which was already attributed the meaning of 'player'. This was the most potent discovery in Indian history and theology. For now a phonetic form was discovered that contained not only the powers of both the dominating schools of spirituality, but also gave the image of an Almighty who was "the player", and whose creation were all pawns.

Valmiki's Ramayana was indeed written with the purpose of unifying the cults into a single faith system. It starts with the story of Valmiki's reformation, aided by the name "Raama", clearly establishing the precedence of the name to the character. Although the character himself was an avatara of Vishnu (then the dominating deity), he is shown throughout his journey as a worshiper of Shiva and his family, and as a scion of the Solar clan. Later in the epic, we come across an instance where Hanuman uses the name of Raama to repel the arrows of Raama himself, proving the powers of the name to be superior to the avatara himself.

The years passed, and the war was by no means over, although no longer as physically manifest. In time Vaishnavism took the upper hand, and the name which was previously neutral was firmly associated with Naaraayana. But its powers were never undermined.

In the Vishnusahasranaama (narrated by Bheeshma in the Mahabharata), Shiva responds to Parvati's query by saying "the name Raama equals and exceeds the power of all of Vishnu's thousand names, and by chanting this name alone may humans derive the benefits of reciting the whole Vishnusahasranama"

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Valmiki's intentions in naming his hero "khiladi" however, wasn't as religious as it was spiritual. His inherent message seemed to be "you are not pawns of any power, but players yourselves - remember your powers, and live by them".

The idea was, that the Lord has created the universe to be a self sustaining system, with its own laws. It is a gameboard in which the Lord has split his attentions into moving the various pawns, our bodies & characters, giving them sentience. But, engrossed in the gameplay, we lose the realization that we are not beings of the gameboard, but the player Himself. We, all of us, are the Lord descended into the gameplay. We are all avatars. But this loss of memory makes us feel that we are the characters, the pawns. The intention of Valmiki was to refresh our memory, to make us realize that we're masters of the gameplay, that we're responsible for our destinies.

Raama, by virtue of his name itself, is a apecial avatar. He realizes that He is indeed a Khiladi. Throughout the epic, we see him making choices, with the determination and confidence that he was making his destiny. And he was constantly reminding his companions to do the same. Through his life, we are all taught how not to be manipulated by the situations, but to use them .

Today, on the day we celebrate the birth of our republic, we need this lesson more than ever. For only in acknowledging this truth and accepting the responsibilities that come with this power, can we claim to be true citizens, or even living beings.

Humanity

This is a picture of my study, the room I spent most of my waking time in. Not that I actually study though.

A VERSatile Term

It all began with the SIP. Was the process as random as it was touted to be? I pondered about it. Finally, I came to the conclusion that...for all that I can say or do, I’ll get what life drifts my way. But in spite of that I’ve a boat to float, and distant lands to explore...

The Drift

A boat to float, an axe to grind,

Some taken, some left behind,
For all that I can do or say,
I’ll only get what comes my way,
Both truths I have to reconcile,
And not get stuck in life’s turnstile

One fine HRP class, the day we were taught the R & S plan; my attention flickered for the first time with dangerous intensity... Soon I was dreaming of Vikram Seth’s Frog... Neither stones nor prayers nor sticks, Insults or complaints or bricks...

Dwarfed by the Drivel

Drips, feathers, and thumbscrew leathers,

Putrid words and two-pronged swords,
And all the things that get the soul to shrivel,
Are all outdone, they’re dwarfed by the drivel.

The next class... Induction & placement... I was suddenly reminded of Prof. Prithviraj H. Soni...

Faulty Faucet

Filled frustum with a faulty faucet,

Lynches lustre from a lucky locket,
Pious plea from the profoundest pocket,
Requests release from this reeking racket.

The same class, different rhythm... Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak... In response to the gassy ppt.

Global Action Strategy

Idle thoughts will leave no trace,

Little substance, too much space,
What head or heart or soul divine,
Can tolerate such gimmickry?

The Equivocator

Kiss the snake and smooch the frog,

Feed the swine and slay the hog,
Put even Janus to such shame,
That he resorts to heresy.

The aforementioned person’s  response to mid-term feedback...

Payback

Six score people and three more,

Take the cue and fuel uproar,
Poor old dusty rusty James,
Dances merrily on the flames.

Then I woke up after the ad hoc fast I observed in honour of the completion of PMIR batch placements; I felt weak (a hitherto unobserved occurrence in my experiences with fasting), so I had needed a nap. The next day I missed my beloved repository of poetry and assorted class notes (a really handy notepad along with a notepad and pen holder). I searched high, I searched low... alas! It was gone...

Grief

Syllables weep and letters cry,

Words fall dumb and ideas die,
Grief for those who are now long gone,
Puts those expected on standby.

They died not from the cold without, but from the cold within... And so I pondered about the true source of my hatred and suffering...

The Cold Within

Hated icons sting the eye,

Torture eardrums, neurons fry,
But seeking source, I come to find,
Not the cold without, but the heat behind.

Mad at the loss of my random limerick rhymes, I clutched at their fast disappearing remnants...

Water In My Cupped Hands

Rhythms of my past ruminations,

Echoes and odd emanations,
Balderdashy exclamations,
Lost to my lamentations.

Succession Plan... I drifted to the fall of the Angel Castiel. But the poem was completed in the first AFM guest lecture.

Vagus

Decadent lanes in cities plagued,

More from devices than vices base,
The entrails, limbs and life blood suffer,
From the tortuous traitorous train of thoughts.

These three directly followed Vagus, on the same occasion.

Blind faith

Rosy hues turn into the colours of gore,
Veils vanish between the morrow and yore,
When doubtful fire melts not the wax of sin,
The wick burns out; there is darkness galore

TAXI

Take a look beyond the veil,
Where voices die & letters fail,
What mortal heart not made of stone,
Can be so averse to verity?

Unheard Tales

Floating leaves on a silent stream,

Pass their lives in equal silence,
The world cares not for their silent scream,
But turns away in deafening silence.

The day that culminated in SIP wetnite... A highly productive and successful day... Another trio

Brainless Rapture

Amos wounded by his own shaft,

Had set his eyes on Psyche,
So when we began the HRP draft,
We traded brains with a monkey.

An ode to my dear friend Aditya Gupta...

The sage Kashyapa had two wives,

Diti & Aditi – with two lives,
One brought forth demons, the other gods,
One ate snails, the other gastropods.

সিয়ার 

জাতে মাতাল তালে ঠিক,

যে না ভজে তারে ধিক, 

পিতা সম পালে প্রজা,

নিয়ত কিন্তু নহে সজা

And then I wrote a few verses of purely academic nature, till one day the “poetic attack” grinded to a halt...

Claviceps purpurea

Rocking candies, fluffy clouds,

Seeing music, tasting shrouds,
Whatever infected my sweet prose,
Feasted also on my poetry.

Saddened by the demise of my VERSatility, I sat next to Ruchika, out in the open, after the Law exam, to pen down my least favourite pieces...

For Amrit, the Sworn Enemy of Verse

My friend Amrit, he hates a rhyme,

And I worship all verse sublime,
To make him mad, and ruin his day,
I sent these five lines his way:

“Each word that makes a verse,
Each beat that makes a rhythm,
Every crystal that is not amorphous,
Is an illusion of order
In a universe destined to chaos.”

Ode to Lucifer and the First Born

When Lilith raised her lone head,

And did not to her equal succumb,
She left us both wiser and dead,
And left Utopia to the dumb.

Because it is in hunger that we seek the truth,
It is in bareness that we weave its semblance,
It is in the depths that we are cleansed the most,
And it is the bringer of light who keeps us from eternal darkness.

As an afterthought, I wrote an alternative, rhyming version of the second stanza, which reads like this:

Because only the hungry can succour find,
Only the wounded can heal their kind,
Only the depths can truly scour,
And the bringer of light keep us from the dooming hour.

Since I’d just written a law exam, I asked myself if crime paid or not. I decided that it did.

Scot free

Eaten sugar, told lies,

Given very bad advice,
Done every offence in the book,
Look dad! I’m still off the hook!

And then I thought of free will, and the debate on its existence...

The Marionettes

One by tail, the other by horn,

Sowed the kernel, reaped the corn,
Reduced all creation to finger puppets,
Alas! Found to oneself strings attached.

Epilogue: The lost notepad was found (this post wouldn’t have been possible otherwise), and I await my last exam, expecting a last spark of such productivity. All words fail to express my love and gratitude towards my friends (and to those who have unknowingly or unwillingly benefitted me), for making this term so awesome.

PS: When in doubt, remember G for God, G for Google

The Legend of Ram... The Don

Human history is replete with instances when tales expand to epic proportions, and capture the minds of the populace. In time, the institution of religion decides to encash on this popularity to suit its own purpose.

The latest (relatively) in this category is the tale of Harry Potter, which the Vatican had promptly denounced, on the grounds that it glorified witchcraft. But perhaps religion is losing its hold on public consciousness - or it was simply beaten by the mania.

But one of the oldest in this category of tale-turned-scriptures is our own Ramayana. My interest in this tale is as deep as in Harry Potter. I've followed this epic since childhood - and in more than one version, always in the search of true story.

And so, I begin a series of posts on everything that is known or said about this tale, and I hope you enjoy it.

"Don की तलाश ग्यारह मुल्कों की police को है ..."  

 The relation seems loose, but it's there. The first aspect that one has to face in an attempt to study this tale is the sheer variety of versions. Not just national, but International. The legend of Rama is part of people's lives in all of south east Asia - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines, ..., the lot. The King of Thailand is called Rama to this day (Presently, Rama the IXth) and the capital area in Bangkok is called Ayutthaya. Traditional shadow puppetry of Indonesia lives around this theme, and Indic temples and traditions accompany the tale in all of these countries.

Like the Don's infamy, Rama's fame covers a lot of ground. And while the plot remains the same, the characters sometimes go sea changes - Hanuman, for example. A paragon of asceticism in India, Hanuman is otherwise unanimously portrayed as being a womaniser elsewhere. This and many other things prompt the reader to probe beyond the facts, and to the real meaning behind these legends.

But most of all, the ancient coexistence of these variants tell us that the tale is older than religion itself, and has a profoundness that is universally revered.

Guest Post - Nerdspeak - KPJ

 In reality the situation didn't get so nerdy but I couldn't stop to pen it's extension!

DAY 1 (THE BEGINNING)

Me: You know why I “text”ed you, right?

She: No

Me: So was the “No” for dinner or you had no idea what I was talking about?

She: No for both

Me: Ohh :( ... So are we gonna ever meet before the Universe decelerates to singularity?

She: No

Me: And if the Universe bounces back & forms Earth-like planet again with creatures like you & me - then would you meet?

She: I might think then

Me: But it will take, if LQG is correct, at least 14.5 billion years for the universe to collapse and 14.5 billion years to form you and me... that makes a total travel time of 29 billion years!

She: LQG?

[NOTE: She didn't even read the main part of the text! Or probably she misunderstood LQG with lmao]

Me: Loop Quantum Gravity

[NOTE: I waited for 5 minutes and she didn't reply me back]

Me: Aahhh... what if an anti-you & anti-me are taking dinner in a parallel universe?

She: I don't care

Me: But then there action creates waveforms that superimposes in our universe... and hence the probability of the wave function describing our dinner increases?

[NOTE: I believe she didn't understand the point of my last text and hence didn't reply. But I was far from giving up]

DAY 2 (THE EXPECTATIONS)

Me: Hey I have a much cooler and nerdier plan! Do you wanna come for Star gazing open house tonight?We can literally watch supernova remnant and globular clusters with telescope!

[NOTE: I was careful not to use abbreviations like SNR and GC. Also I thought she might find it extremely romantic when I show her that the line joining last two stars of Big Dipper constellation coincides with the Polar star. I was having all sorts of goosebumps but...]

She: No

Me: We might witness a miracle like optical signals from an alien (as there are more than 300 exo-solar planets) or might see Betelgeuse explode! :P

[NOTE: If she was an astronomer/physicist she knew I was making things up as optical signals can't travel to far or etc... I thought I could excite her “normal mind” with these words but without even carefully reading my text she went...]

She: I don't believe in miracles

[NOTE: She tried to be rational like “me”... As an usual habit, when I don't know what to say, I simply shoot a quotation of Einstein or someone equivalent. It usually never matches with the situation but I thought she might just concentrate on the main words.]

Me: "There are only two ways of living life: as though nothing is a Miracle, or as though everything is a Miracle!" - AE

[NOTE: No reply... I guess she didn't get the point of the quote (if there was any) and neither did I wanted to miss the open house. So I stopped bugging]

DAY 3 (THE CONCLUSION)

[NOTE: This time I knew I shouldn't be nerdy but...]

Me: You know you are like a boson!

She: What???

Me: I mean you are neither in a quantum state of being “beautiful” nor being “nerd”

[NOTE: I pressed the “send” button incidentally]

She: WTF

[NOTE: The reply came faster than ever before]

Me: My bad... sentence left incomplete :P ... I mean you are both beautiful and intelligent... as if you can be in both the quantum states and contradict Pauli Exclusion Principle!

[NOTE: I didn't get into technical details that she followed the Bose-Einstein statistics and hence be in both the quantum states. Anyways she didn't reply for few minutes...]

Me: My empirical observations suggest that you generally don't reply my text message as you can't understand my emotions.

She: What emotions? Say clearly

[NOTE: I was waiting for this instance]

Me: You know you have made my life like a Heisenberg's particle... I am living life filled with uncertainty! I know I like you and I also want to be with you but Nature is not permitting me either of that... Now you say what should I do?

She: Get a life

Me: But... never mind!

[NOTE: I wanted to say to her that she just described a paradoxical statement as “I am living” is equivalent to “having a life” and to get a life I have to first die and then find a life... NEVER MIND! Such is sad tale of mine :( ]

- KPJ

Dialogy... KPJ

Well, one learns something every day. So here's an excerpt from KPJ's reply.

karan.p.jani: well

  first I added that link on facebook so that entire world can read! :d

  specially the ones who know me!

 me: m honoured

22:56 karan.p.jani: I am pretty sure hardly anyone understood it as the article was too technical

 me: was it?

 karan.p.jani: I followed it only because

 me: u asked for it

 karan.p.jani: a) I was interested to know what you wanted to say

22:57 b) Because I am reading Sartre et al. which are much much more complicated then this!

 me: ah! of course!

 karan.p.jani: but I like the way you proceeded your argument

 me: he argues otherwise?

 karan.p.jani: the rational logical argument approach!

  no its hard to understand first of all what is he arguing for!

22:58 me: hahaha

 karan.p.jani: nevertheless coming back to the blog

 me: ya

 karan.p.jani: my honest opinion

  let me first write it completely

  and then you reply

 me: ok

22:59 karan.p.jani: I found your language usage different then your regular tone

  your arguments were true

  but for some unknown reason it wasn't you

  it wasn't your thoughts

  as if it was a mosaic

  of other people's thoughts

23:00 I know that you once said me

  "Man is the most unoriginal creature"

  and I agree with that

  but your "human" part was missing in the argument

23:01 you were logical, rational, might be even scientifically accurate but you weren't Ishitia

  I read it and was admired that you took the effort to write a whole blog for me

23:02 but I am sure if we had a conversation the argument would have proceeded in a different way

  like you could have created examples and situations that would have been sufficient for me to get the direction

  well... sorry if you felt disappointed but I really dont intend to hurt you

23:03 it was a friendly critique

 me: not at all

 karan.p.jani: thats it!

  now shoot!

 me: u are a very fine observer

23:04 and m not disappointed