Every time Spring Comes

    Look at this picture, and you will know, that even though it is going to arrive, spring always, always surprises us, as if we were never expecting it.....

Every time spring comes, it is a surprise.  

This is how it happens.  

You leave home without realising that you do not have your hat on and you forgot your gloves. And although it is nippy, you can bear it.  Your fingers are turning  red but  you can slip them into the pockets of your light fleece jacket over your wool shirt.  You are wearing two layers of tights, but not your ski pants that work like wind cheaters.  The sky is blue and bright.  Birds chirp earlier and longer in the day.  

The air is breatheable--and before you know you realise your lips have widened in both directions, reaching your ears.  

Must be spring, must be love!! And simple as that, you bow up at the sky, hoping someone is listening and whisper a thankyou.  The change, the contrast, the movement.  And a realisation that something in us remains the same, change of seasons are only for us to shift our mindset.  For those of us who live in stark climates, we get four chances every year to switch our mind set. We must use it.  And you folks, you live where the changes are not so stark...well, create them, at least four major times every year when you decide you are going to swich something in your life. 

Will end with a story from spring of 2005.  Teaching an international communication class in the US.  Asked the students to write an extra credit assignment telling me what they had learnt in that class.  The student wrote, 'among other things, your lecture on spring and easter, when you said that it is a time for renewal.  I walked out fo the class with a determination to quit smoking.'

iOne of the best, if not the best contribution of my academic career. 

May you renew yourself. 

Some Truth on Crisis

PS:  Will update this page for the next few days.   Watch this space and read how people work so hard, and yet media has its focus on creating panic.

So, this is going to be short or not so...but with a specific point.  I have two other posts that I am working on, but thought of sharing this, this week.

A friend wrote and said that BBC is talking about the dire situation in India because of the Chinese virus (people are so afraid to call it that).

The fact is that India is a 1.3 billion people country.  With huge disparity in the wealth and prosperity status.  Yet, the country has mailed vaccines to other countries in the last 3 months.  I know of thankyou notes from officials and citizens from South Africa, Brazil, Morroco, Canada, Israel, and Pakistan. USA got quinine --last year.  

India rode the first wave very well and had very little damage.  The new virus strain is something that the people were not prepared for.  While the situation is dire, it is also getting better at the same time as the following tweets will tell you.  But will the international media cover it?  No, it takes immense pleasure in putting the country down.  I have seen it over and over again. 

The world fears China, and thinks India can be put down.   Also, because as a nation it is rising.  It is defying colonialism.  Its rising respect for Hinduism is also a mark of self-confidence.  The young are reading texts, not considering it superstition.  

Many of our simple ways of Nameste, as a hello rather than a handshake, and eating no jhootha (meaning a lie, is also used when you eat out of the same plate, use a spoon used by someone else, drink out of the same bottle, generally very kosher.  What we eat has to be pure and untouched.  I still carry that in my life.  I used to laugh that my little nephew would not let me drink out of his glass.  But all these habits are ancient Hindu habits of cleanliness.  I remember being appalled at seeing people taste food while cooking, and putting the same spoon back in the pan. Both in Africa and in the US.  The same applied to the body.  A shower in the morning, and clear ideas about who to get intimate with. All these practices are valid even today and especially in the times of pandemic).

The following tweet is about how miseries of global south is usually used in international media.

And you can listen to a podcast that talks about an American 

journalist calling a picture of funeral pyres "Stunning" Having fun at other people's pain.  

The following tweet is correct misinformation provided by a leading Indian journalist Barkha Dutt in Washington Post.  So, BI forces--Breaking India forces in collaboration with western media do this. 

But the western media is having a field day by focussing on the hard times in these pandemic in India, even as the situation gets better.

Here read this and see how common Indians are helping each other for no money...no glory.  Just driving folks who are migrant workers, live in squatter settlements, and driving them to the hospital.  Jai Bharat means, Glory to India. 

Magazines like India Today are heavily funded by people who are anti-India (yes many of them are Indians).  So behind these names India Today, Times of India (called Toilet Paper of India by young Indians)--and they hardly see the news in context.  The aim is to defame the country and its primary religion.  Mr. Frawley is an American and a noted Hindu and an Ayurveda (medicine based on Indian texts) practitioner.  Lives in India and often comments on the situation. 

The following tweet refers to the Vice President of the US. Chitti, means mother's younger sister (aunty)in Tamil (I think). For all her Indian-ness that she used to get votes from Indian Americans, not a peep about helping India.  

here is an Indian American lamenting how disappointed he is the way the US has responded despite being helped by India only a few months ago. 

So, here is one Indian tweeted after the above tweet. 

मैत्रीं भजत अखिलहृज्जेत्रीम् आत्मवदेव परानपि पश्यत । युद्धं त्यजत स्पर्धां त्यजत त्यजत परेषु अक्रममाक्रमणम् ॥ जननी पृथिवी कामदुघाऽऽस्ते जनको देवः सकलदयालुः । दाम्यत दत्त दयध्वं जनताः श्रेयो भूयात् सकलजनानाम् ॥

Here is what it means:

https://youtu.be/zbjAkaec7Lc
Maithreem Bhajatha , Akhila Hrujjethreem,
Atmavadeva paraanapi pashyatha
Yuddham thyajatha , Spardhaam Tyajata , thyajatha Pareshu akramamaakramanam
Jananee Pruthivee Kaamadughaastey
JanakO Devah Sakala Dayaaluh
Daamyata Datta Dayadhvam Janathaah
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam

Raaga - Sung in Ragamalika
Tala - Adi

Though it is not possible to translate the song into English and still preserve its original meaning to the fullest extent, sources available from the WordWide Web suggest the following translation:

Maithreem Bhajatha Akila Hrith Jeththreem - 

to Cultivate Friendship and Humility, which will conquer the Hearts of Everyone.
Atmavat Eva Paraan api pashyata - 

Look upon others similar to yourself.
Yuddham Tyajata - 

Renounce War
Spardhaam Tyajata -

forsake Competition
Tyajata Pareshwa akrama aakramanam - 

Give up Aggression do be aggressive
Jananee Prthivee Kaamadughaastey - 

Mother Earth yields all that we desire,

'Kaamadughaastey'-

she gives that all the things we desire (cloths,food etc)
JanakO Deva: Sakala Dayaalu: 

- There is only one father in common,god he is Our Father, is very Compassionate to All (PLEASE NOTE, NOT JUST KIND TO BELIEVERS)
Daamyata - 

practice Restrain yourself
Datta - 

So, Donate your wealth to others
Dayathvam - 

So, Be Kind to others
Janathaa: - 

Oh People of the World
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam -

May All People of this World be Happy and Prosperous.
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam - 

May All People of this World be Happy and Prosperous.
Sreyo Bhooyaath Sakala Janaanaam - 

May All People of this World be Happy and Prosperous.

Maithreem Bhajata मैत्रीं भजत is a benediction composed in Sanskrit by Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, renowned as the Paramacharya of Kanchi.

The song was set to a Ragamalika by composer Shri Vasant Desai. It was rendered at the United Nations on Oct. 23, 1966 on the occasion of the UN day, by Bharat Ratna Smt. M. S. Subbulakshmi and received a standing ovation.

Source : wiki

CONCLUSION: Watch media....listen to the news, still always be wary.  The best thing is to take care of those around us and love people.  That will make a better world. May you all be happy, prosperous and very healthy 

Spwing!!

Wow, published April 4, 2010, am republishing this --because I have not published anything for easter.  I know it was a week ago, but I need to honor it.  Normally our easter means feathers.  I have published several  So read it and see how new I was in the country and how fascinated with the traditions. I loved learning about all the traditions and rituals. Also, this is when I was still writing poetry. Have not done it in years. Hope you enjoy this.  A very yellow and bright and 'daffodilly' post!!

Nothing real on the blog for a while.

Its not just that I have been busy, there are many other reasons, but they will follow.

I just want to write about what major events have been happening--nature-wise in my environs.

On my way to work yesterday, I noticed something that I had not noticed before. Two blocks of stone, right in the middle of the patch of ground outside the university. They must have been buried in the snow all this time. Both have the same face carved on them, but one has eyes closed and the other has its eyes open. I wondered what that was. I am assuming, it defines/symbolizes what the university stands for. We are barely alive when we come to the place of learning, and with the right combination of desire to learn and teachers who want to engage us in learning, we leave with our eyes open.

We are changed and the world is never ever the same again.

Just like in places where you have four seasons. With every winter, we have a stronger belief in summer and spring and we learn to enjoy autumn and winter with just as much fervor.

We are changed, because change is all around us. And if we do not change, and evolve, we are dead anyway.

Only a few days ago, we were covered in snow, three weeks ago, we got 36 hours of snowfall.

But last week, when I came home the snow had magically melted. The ground emerged, as if from way below the sea level. The trees sort of have a bit of their dignity back, now that every branch is not twisted under snow.

They are beginning to show their color, a little green here, a little life in that brown bark. The ground is still hard.

But there are daffodils. They are called Pask Lily--Pask meaning easter. So, Easter Lilies.

I could go and write a whole essay about how Christianity is mainly a northern hemisphere religion. It makes sense here. In Fiji and Botswana and most parts of India, neither Christmas, nor Easter make any sense.

But the point is that, it is a time of resurrection. Renewal, hope, and life.

Instead of Easter bunnies, we have witches and roosters. And ofcourse, eggs!!

Much chocolate, usually sold in egg shaped containers.

I had to go into town today to pick up some papers and I realized that the restaurants and cafe’s have arranged their chairs and outdoor seating area. Enticing the customers, seducing the public. Ah, but what else is spring for!!

Why, I am taking so much time out of my tight schedule and writing this is because today, as I walked to school, I stopped by a bare tree, that was tall and stood with its usual elegance, as it did through the winter. But now, instead of snow, there were drops of melted snow, hanging at the end of every branch, every little vein that had survived this winter, that I am told was the coldest in the last twenty years.

The drops were not frozen but not supple like warm water either. They just hung, like the fog above us. Waiting for their completion. Maybe waiting for the sun to absorb them, back into the vast, infinite nothingness!

I simply sighed and walked on. On the way, to the university, I saw these beautiful flowers.

As I stopped to see them.

Crocuses!! My mind said.

White and purple. Spring.

The grass is still quite brown, but in the middle of the parking lot, sans snow, there were some signs of life. And I think they were not planted. So they intended themselves, just like nature. Crocuses for weeds in Sweden, orchids for weeds in Fiji!! How could we complain?

No matter how hard winters are, spring always comes. Hope always remains, sun always shines, may be not often, may be not forever, but always returns.

Why then do we think of time in a linear way?

Time is not the reality, it is an idea created by the self, to make sense of things (From a meditation course that I follow online).

I end here with a poem I wrote the year I started Phd. That spring I had much to consider so I wrote to make sense of things.

Splling

Dew Drops on a Cob Web,

Smiling,

glistening,

like diamonds,

cannot be matched,

cannot be replicated;

gentle breeze,

surpassing the cooling gadgets

considers us human,

stretched days-

allow us naps,

young flowers

inspire us to smile,

rain comes home

like a long awaited guest

and leaves us the gift of a rainbow,

another toddler learns to call out-

splling!!