Remembering grandpa

People remember 5^th September as Teachers’ day in India. I have another reason to remember it; it is the birthday of my grandfather. Quite fittingly he was also a teacher and headmaster during his working days. Had he not lived with us, probably, I would not have known much about him. My grandfather and grandmother lived their own life in our ancestral house in a small town called Tenali and I used to live with my parents and brother in Visakhapatnam, a much bigger city. Except for a few occasional visits, they never stayed with any of their eight sons and daughters continuously for more than a month or two. My grandmother passed away when I was in my high school and it was then that he came to our house to stay with us. By nature, he was a person with calm-going attitude and it took him a bit of time to get adjusted to the new environment and lifestyle in our home. I should say, the best part of time I spent with him started when I completed my high school and entered into Intermediate education.

He was a man of indomitable spirit, otherwise, how could a man in his mid-seventies and with chronic asthma dare to go for a casual-walk for 4 or 5 kilometres without any support or company. Every now and then he would repeat this exercise walking from our house to my aunt’s house testing his body limits and adding to our anxiety. Sometimes he would change his direction, looking for some unexplored places in and around Visakhapatnam. When he had an asthma attack, he would sit under a tree puffing his inhaler, but that would never stop him from exploring the city.

He was an avid reader and had a huge collection of books. Every day, after his morning walk, he would start reading the newspaper, top to bottom. Every now and then, he would read a statement from the newspaper aloud, just to draw my attention, and soon a discussion would start. Discussions and debates on topics ranging from Indian politics to spirituality, sports and health to modern cinema, arts and culture to science were a regular part of our conversation. His interest in reading did not stop him there. He had a membership in the Visakha Central Library, where he would regularly borrow books on varied subjects, mainly on classical telugu literature.

 My grandfather was a simple man. He always wore a dhoti and white shirt, which symbolized with his peacefulness. And he carried a cloth bag with him where ever he went. In my view, the bag symbolized his care for environment.  We used to live in a packed apartment complex, which was also home to many pigeons, which lived on the ventilators of the houses. While some people in the apartment complex tried to drive those pigeons away for the mess they created with their droppings, he would buy grains to feed them.  No wonder he had befriended many of the pigeons too.

Almost five years have passed since he left this world. What he had left behind is his legacy of simplicity, peacefulness, caring attitude and plenty of pleasant memories. Today, on this teachers day, when I sit down and think about him , I feel his life itself is a teaching for me, how to live and more importantly, live with a purpose.

Culture and Society

I vaguely said to my friend: “I think we should ban all kinds of regional meetings”. We were going to ‘Tarangini’, a meeting of all the telugu-speaking people in IIT Roorkee.

 He shot back: “Are you mad? Aren't you proud of our telugu culture. You probably have forgotten the roots where you came from”.

I didn’t know what to say. Did I really forget my roots? Obviously NO! I really don’t have any words to describe the awesomeness of a telugu padyam in my school text book, written by the great poets of telugu literature. The splendidness of an Andhra-style dhoti and sari is next to nothing. I still can’t compare any kind of food item in the world to the home-made Gongura Pachadi eaten with hot rice and ghee. The artistic, spiritual, philosophical and intellectual wealth is our heritage, our culture.

“What do you really mean by telugu culture? Aren’t we all children of Mother India? Why do you want to gratify your own culture when in essence it’s nothing but a part of greater Indian culture? Every region has its own cultures and traditions. Now, does it really matter in this remote part of northern India, whether you are a Telugu, Tamilian, or a Bengali ?"

“Shut up man! Every community celebrates their own regional meet. Why not ours?"

“There you go! In effect, the meet was only supposed to be a platform for people of a common region to get to know about each other. Unfortunately, regional meets, it appears to have become meetings, intended to boast about the characteristics of their regions. Being a true Indian in my sense is to be a great global citizen."

We stopped the discussion there and I was lost in further thoughts.

Most of us only talk about preserving Indian culture. What do we have to do to transform our society into a better society? Hardly do we think or do anything about it. Let us examine our inter-personal behaviour. In a place where it is irrelevant and unnecessary, we bring caste into our discussions and decisions. In fact most of the political organizations and even cinema-idol fan clubs are all rife with caste-politics. When do we realize that being a human being is more important than being a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian?

What else have we forgotten in glorifying our culture? While in scriptures we treat a woman to be an equal half of a man, in practice, a modern-day woman can hardly dare to venture into the night in Delhi or Mumbai or in our own Hyderabad without thinking about any kind of crime committed against her. Birth of a girl child is still a taboo. Majority of bride-grooms even today, take dowry before marrying a girl. I was surprised when I heard from some of my own friends that they are willing to take dowry for their marriage. Forget about the pressure from parents or relatives, as educated citizens aren’t we supposed to raise our voice against dowry system.

It is one thing to claim great moral and cultural heritage and quite another thing to live up to it with pride and dignity. No country is perfect in policies and their enforcement. There are good things and not-so- good things about all the cultures. Professionally, we Indians have done remarkably well in all kinds of fields in all the corners of the world. Should we sit down and boast about our ethnicity or strive to make our country a better place to live? First step in the direction would be to pause and think about these issues.

Here is a poem of Ravindranath Tagore that inspires me:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action…

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

A Traveller's diary

 How beautiful would it be when you are travelling on a ghat road, located 2000 meters above mean sea level, and when the orange coloured morning sun rays just strike the snow-capped Himalayan mountains in February. The enchanting sight was a life time experience and we were filled with joy. We were going away from the bustling towns and cities of Northern India and what one would call, away from the modern civilization and into the wild. The place was Joshimath in Uttarakhand.

 It was an off-season and the small town was still sleeping. The ancient and mystic Deodar trees which lined the slopes of mountains added to the beauty of the scenery. The tranquillity of the place was just fascinating. As we got down the vehicle we could see a couple of grey hornbills flying valiantly and graciously in the sky. As we turned around we could see a wood pecker, perched on a tree and pecking at its bark. Our movements were the only source of disturbance to a flock of sparrows that were enjoying the warmth of early morning sun.

Joshimath derives its name from Jyotirmath, which is the first of the four Hindu mathas (matha=monastery) established by Adi Sankaracharya in the 8^th century. ‘Kalpavriksh’, a tree believed to be 2500 years old and still alive can be seen near the matha. A localite told us that this is the tree under which Adi Sankaracharya attained wisdom.

Our next destination was Auli ski resort. Positioned comfortably at a height varying from 2500 meters to 3000 meters, the ski resort is apparently one of the best in the world. Auli offers a 180 degree view of surrounding snow clad Himalayan Mountains and we saw the majestic Mountain Nandadevi from there.

From Joshimath and along a different route, as we travelled, we entered the Nandadevi biosphere reserve. The higher Himalayan Mountains started appearing before our eyes from here and this region is mostly untouched by human beings and one can only imagine the beauty of this place. Moving along we reached Hanuman Chatti, a resting place for pilgrims going to Badrinath, it is the last approachable place on the route during winter. Badrinath is roughly just 15 to 20 kilometres from here. We were disappointed that we could not move any further because of severe snow along the route. There is an interesting historical significance to this place. According to local folklore, it is believed that Hanuman Chatti is the place where Hanuman humbled the ego of Bhima.

The return journey was a tough one for us as we didn’t want the journey to end so soon. As we were returning back, I remembered the lines of a telugu poem written by the great poet Allasani Peddana from our school telugu text book, ‘Atajani kanche bhumisurudu...’ from Manu Charithra, where he describes the beauty of Himalayas. No one could have described it better.

We live in a pessimistic modern world. In pursuit of all the material comforts how many times have we failed to make notice of the little beautiful world around us, from which we owe our existence? Seeing nature in its best hues is the best way to overcome the heat of our modern day chores. The trip also underlined the importance of protecting nature.  As they say in Sanskrit: ‘Vruksho rakshati rakshitaha’, which means, 'Protect trees and they will protect you'.

Wood pecker on the tree

                                            

                                                     

Auli

Narasimha Mandir-Jyoshimath

Jyotir Math

Deodar trees on a Himalayan Mountain

Hanuman Chatti