Dronas and Nightingales

I happen to read this article on NY Times about Doctors and Professors. For those of you who have not read this article please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/business/27richer.html?em&ex=1164949200&en=1274fa49c23b112c&ei=5087%0A

The crux of the article is how the lure for wealth affects our career choice. I happen to forward this to this to my Professor at the Business School with an idea to pick his brains. Here is the response from him.

Dear Chandra,
I also enjoyed this article. I feel that a medical person who moves to a profession where he/she can use his/her medical skills is all right, because I think he/she would not be a very good doctor anyway even though they are bright, intelligent people. A doctor needs to be someone who has deep compassion for humanity and able to comfort people not only medically but also with feelings and understanding. Those who leave the profession for lucrative salaries in other professions are not this type person.
Take care.
Best wishes.
Clay V. Sink

A few of the points he brought out from the article really hit me hard. Here are my thoughts and my reply to him.

Dear Sir:
You made a nice point and you hit the nail on the issue. Both teaching and nursing are professions for people with a servicing soul and willing to share with and sacrifice for the society. While people can choose to change professions with the piling up more cash and sit on tall bank balances but only a few give back to the society. We need people of both kinds one who can contribute monetarily and one who can serve physically. Everybody can’t sit on top of the palanquin since we need people to carry the palanquin.

Slapping lawsuits has become a norm in the society today. Gone is the time when American public went behind big corporations, today the same fervor is reflected in every profession. Newsweek in December of 2003 ran a cover story titled, “Lawsuit Hell – How fear of litigation is paralyzing our profession”. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3660738/)
This article talks about how Doctors, Teachers, Coaches and Ministers live with a fear of fighting wars in court rooms. Is it because of the small rope of patience that American hold and they sue at slightest provocation?

If you look back at the old Gurukula style (residential) of teaching in India, the student resides with their teacher for 10-12 years. Students help their teacher in his daily chores, collecting firewood, and pay their dues only through service. He not only learns imbibes the much sought book knowledge but also gets practically exposed to the right way of living with values and ethics. Gurus accepted small contribution as dakshina, but their needs were met by the King. But today the education system in the West is all about cash and carry and here in India the Engineering and Medical colleges fleece and capitation is the proof of the pudding. When these folks get out of college their ambition to repay and sit on stash of cash is more powerful than service the community. This throws open a big area for debate if these institutions make the right kind of citizens and are they giving us an opportunity to live with values and ethics? Does our society provide the opportunity to service the community?

The Capitalistic society has pushed people towards materialistic pursuits and the word service is slowly becoming obsolete. US universities have made education a perfect business model and that is the reason today Teachers don’t command much respect amongst the student community. I have witnessed this during my Masters education in the US. Students attend the classes at their convenience and walk in with an “I am paying to get educated” attitude. They put their legs up on the table and munch chips and sip Coke during the class hours. Teachers seem to be more worried about their feedback and tenure rather than their students. Is the education system setting the right values today? Are they making the right kind of citizens?

Education has got a commodity status and people are ready to buy them for a price and as a result they don’t pay due respects to their teachers, who I consider the pillars of the society. I am not against getting quality education in the school, but it should scare the professors from disciplining students worrying about their employment contract.

Same argument can be extended to Health Care. We have heard and read about Florence Nightingale who lived to care for the war victims, but have we come across anyone during the recent past doing that kind of a selfless service? May be there are a few people in the World but we seldom get to read or hear. Doctors in America carry Malpractice insurance to cover them incase of negligence, but in most cases they are not at fault.

Teaching and Nursing are the only two Nobel professions rest of them is like selling time and skills for money. Teachers nourish and grow the soul in the right way and the Doctors nurse the wounded soul and make them heal and recover faster. Parents and students paying huge sums of money for education are more inclined to pay back their debts more than servicing the community.

A recent survey conducted in July 2006 by Harris County Medical Society says that Doctors and Teachers Most Trusted Among 22 Occupations and professions in America.
85% of American public trust their Doctors and 83% trust their Teachers. This shows that American public has more faith on Doctors and Teachers more than their President.
The public seem to assured by the pillars of this society. But this doesn’t mean that folks in these professions are absolutely spotless or live outside the courtroom. Indian public has not failed to reprimand Doctors for their negligence and Teachers for crossing the Lakshman Rekha and getting physically involved with their students.

In this world where success is measured in terms of fame and fortune there is little room for service. Even for those who want to do Selfless service the society is just not providing the right ambience. India is the only country that honors Teachers and celebrates Teachers Day. A country where Ekalavya gave his index finger as Guru Dakshina that is the kind of allegiance that we hold towards Guru and teaching profession. While the Capitalistic West has successfully converted 365 to celebrate watch day of the year for a cause and a reason more to market Gifts, cards and other paraphernalia celebrates.

Today there is shortage of Teachers, Nurses and Doctors in America. We live more in a virtual world more than the real world. Not only are jobs outsourced to India but also case sheets are written and diagnosing done by Indian doctors. Home works and term papers are done overseas and Indian professors teach in virtual classrooms. The world has shrunk so has our minds.

While the American public faces the question of making these professions friendlier and less in court room a different kind of battle needs to be fought in India. In a country like India where birth based reservations is strictly followed in colleges and government jobs, we need to give opportunity to people who want to join the nursing and teaching profession with a servicing attitude. It is a big question in front of our society today how to make these professions less glamorous and more service oriented and how fight battles in classrooms and operation theatres rather than courtrooms. The world needs more Nightingales and Dronacharyas.

With Respect
Chandra

Rendezvous turns Revelation

I picked up this novel after reading a review on NY Times sometime back. I wish to share this review with you with the idea that you will definitely read the classic with eyes for appreciation and love. The wise say “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is so true and fits both for the book and the character in the book.

Dreams end when sleep ends, but what happens to desire? Do they originate in our dreams or they mushroom while we are awake? Have you ever pondered if desires have on/off switch? Don’t you think that would make life easier? Is there really a gold pot at the end of the rainbow of desires? Does love happen at the end of lust? May be revelation was the pot of gold. Hang on, lets go and read another man’s desire. We all grow old, but our desires do not necessarily age with us.

Memoirs of Melancholy Whores is a desire of a ninety year old writer to be with a teenage virgin on the night of his 90th birthday. At the age of 90 he neither quit work nor did he quit women. Passion manifest as desire. When asked why he never settled in his life his candid reply shocked the questioner: “whores left no time to be married”. The dark and secretive side of him manifested at the arrival of dusk and ended at dawn.

The man at 90 is busy writing columns for the newspaper and even busier in the evenings visiting the house of a Madam through the orchard gate. Who knows if this visit of his was opening a can of desire or was he waiting for the halo to dawn at sunset years.

Was he out to just get physical or was it more? There is nothing erotic in this novel except for a few passages that is meant to describe the insatiable carnal beast in him. The description about his wait for the call from Rosa Cabarcas was very earthly and at the same time nail biting.

Though the time spent with the teenage girl was less than 6 hours, but it turned out to be the night of revelation. Naming the girl "Delgadina," after a princess in a ballad, he simply goes to sleep alongside her, and is thereby initiated into a new world of romantic love: "That night I discovered the improbable pleasure of contemplating the body of a sleeping woman without the urgencies of desire or the obstacles of modesty." When she talks in her sleep one night, the Scholar notices that her "voice had a plebeian touch" not suited to the Delgadina of his fantasies, and realizes "the last shadow of a doubt disappeared from my soul: I preferred her asleep."

The old man with the libido of a teenage boy he turns into a protector who longs to own and take care of this treasure. Is this what happens when the mirage of lust vanishes and love embalms? He sits and admires the girl without putting his finger on her and endlessly waits for her in the park outside the city. The mother hen in him bestows her with a bicycle for her birthday and emerald ear rings from his mother as gift for sharing the night. He is tormented by separation and flip-flops like a fish out of pond. Delgadina becomes so much a part of him and his life and on the night of the rainstorm he say "I did not see myself alone in the house but always accompanied by Delgadina. I had felt her so close during the night that I detected the sound of her breath in the bedroom and the throbbing of her cheek on my pillow."

A brilliant fiction piece that describes the intangible quotient of love. By merely painting the feelings of the old man before and after the author has brought out the difference between love and lust. No one can distinguish between lust and love in a better way.

Though there has been a lot of noise about the subtle idea of child abuse and pedophilia in the character, but the literary potency of this fictional piece washes away the masculine and feminine potency. Love can visit or revisit at any age, the agony of wait is what it makes it worthy and interesting. It must be read and re-read to get the colors of love and flavor of literature. You can miss love in your life but don’t miss this.

Our Caw Caw friend….

The November skies were brewing and Sun had gone on a sabbatical while our black sweatered friends were busy cawing and scouting around the neighborhood to remind about their morning breakfast. I picked up a cup of fresh filter coffee and stood on my balcony waiting for the morning Sun, while these sat on the branches of the nearby mango tree awaiting their feast. I recollected the tales from Panchatantra where the randy crow stole the Princess necklace and dropped in a termite mound. I looked around to see if there was anything valuable that could be pilfered easily.

My day doesn’t really begin without hearing their morning melodies or catching a glimpse of their naughty tricks. These guys usually start their day at my place and then go around area for their daily food festival. There are days when mom might not be in the kitchen or she is out of town, but when it comes to feeding time these guys goes around the house looking for my mother. Jokingly, I tell my mother that her in-laws have arrived. Over the years my mother and her friends have become chums. Whenever my mother travels she would leave special instructions for us to take care of the crows in the neighborhood and she would call before we leave for work to check if we had fed them. You can call it a karmic bond or collection of karmic dues by our grey collared winged friends.

Even from a distance, the world of birds is astonishing watch and if open we could learn a lot from them. The tradition of feeding birds, especially crows in Hinduism is deep rooted and today with rapid urbanization I wonder what will happen to these species. Darwinism holds good and only the fittest survive. These wild species have become friendlier and adapted to the city lifestyle forgetting their hunting instincts and fending food for themselves. But still I find people in the busy metros caring to these birds in their own ways. I curiously peered at my neighbors’ window sill to glance their menu for the day.

Mondays are usually hurried and their diet is just a spoon of rice, pulses and a drop of ghee in most houses. Towards the middle of the week they get little variety and I am sure they dread their high protein and high fat Saturdays. As a way to placate planet Saturn (Sade Sathi, Janma Saturn, Ashtama Saturn) Hindu faith recommend people feed crows with rice mixed with fried sesame seeds and offer sesame jaggery mixture. The only day of the week where they get to taste some Rajasic and Tamasic food is Sundays. They get a piece of bone and if lucky some flesh with the rice loaded with masala, onion and garlic.

There are references to crows in Hindu mythology and astrology. Planet Saturn aka Sanieshwara is believed to have Crow as his mascot and hence to escape from his wrath mankind has a soft corner for crows however rude and unruly they behave. The legend goes that Nala Maharaja during the period of sade sathi lost his wealth, family and happiness and through prayers to Saturn and offering food to crow and beggars he regained his wealth and happiness.

Happiness is the frame of mind and through simple living and thinking and we can make it ours forever. A simple living dripping with same intensity of love and emotions towards fellow beings can only be seen in their world. A nest made of rags and sticks and not very artistically done just like our neighborhood tenements yet there is motherly care for family and extended family. The opportunist Koels’ solicit their nest by laying eggs and make them nannies to incubate and care of their young ones. Yet there is unadulterated care and love all in abundance .It is a pleasure to see these guys create a raucous when there is food available in the vicinity. There is never a meal without hosting a party for their family and friends even over crumbs and leftovers.

All said and done, there are moments when they don’t behave with finesse and they ransack your kitchen. Of the four that visit my house, two are well behaved, while the other two wild crows (without the grey collar) enter uninvited into my kitchen and raid the milk pot. There are moments of rage and anger when I see them engage in such petty thefts, but then I hold the human civilization and rapid urbanization for tampering their ecological pyramid. The universal law holds good – we are all victims of circumstance.

When my grandmother is with us there is lot more caw caw world interpretation that she throws at us. She says there is a science in Vedas called “Shakuna Shashtra” and “Pakshi Shastra” that talks discusses about the good and bad omens and calls of birds. Paulo Coelho in his book “The Alchemist” refers to reading omens and able to pick the signals of this universe. May be he was also referring to this.

Since ancient time people believe that if a crow caws on the roof, in threshold, or inform of the house at dawn, it is a sign that someone dear will visit the house. It turns out to be true in most cases. Thus, the crow is such a bird with which omens, both good as well as bad have been attached. It is believed that if the crow perches on someone's head his life becomes crisis ridden.
As far as the omens are concerned, omens related to the crow have a very wide field. If someone is starting and the crow discharges its dropping on him, and that dropping falls on the back of the person, he finishes his task successfully. If the dropping falls on an unmarried person he gets married soon. If someone before starting for a task faces a crow and he offers him grains and the crow accepts these grains, that person succeeds in his task otherwise not.
Similarly, if fighting crows fall near or at the feet, it shows the end of continuing or would be crisis. If, on any day, many crows fly overhead crowing, that person should get ready with the finest clothes washed and ironed, for he may be called for a feast. However if too many crows fly overhead without reason it shows a certain danger for the head of the family. If for any reason, members of the household discover a dead crow on their roof they must arrange to cremate the crow respectfully and prayers to purify the ambiance. If in the fourth quarter of any day a crow begins to fly overhead, one must expect to get good news. If in any quarter of the day, a crow begins to caw in a harsh tone sitting on an iron thing facing the south it is inauspicious. Similarly if the crow caws while sitting on wood one gets auspicious news. Seeing the bird in dreams is not regarded as unsuspicious.
Sentiments and religious beliefs are not same with every person and every community. It changes from place to place and from faith to faith. We are asked to feed Crows and Cows on the Shrardham to invoke the blessings of our ancestors. There is a belief that our ancestors could have been born as a cow or a crow in this world and thus by feeding them we would end their hunger. I remember my grandmother say that Thatha will come either in the form of crow or cow on that day to take his share of food. The day after Sankaranthi women in South India offer variety rice, fruits and food to on banana leaf to crows and pray for the welfare of their brothers. Thought I have not questioned this faith I believe that Religion only creates opportunity for us to show enough love and compassion towards birds and animals.

The community grieving is a big ritual to be observed in the Crow kingdom. When a fellow mate is get knocked down by the high-voltage power line or succumbs to natural death there is harsh tone in their cawing. A deep sense of sadness and bereavement can be observed in their voice. Within minutes they gather for the funeral service all dressed in black and some with grey collar.

Crow is a bird that lives a life of sharing with communal harmony. Isn’t it time that we learn from the winged friends? Though the fight between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Cauvery issue and the unsuccessful tribunal and Supreme Court continues on rationing water to Tamil Nadu, but we as tamilians have more reasons to thank these guys. If not for the feathered friend we would not have Cauvery flowing in Tamil Nadu. Years after years passed, with absent of Cauvery people living beside the river suffer due to shortage of water. Due to increase of sufferings day by day they were trying to find solution for this problem. Maharishi Naradhar was walking along the Banks of Cauvery and was surprised to see the dried river. As he was walking he saw people whispering and he went near to them and enquired about the dry river. People requested him to give solution to avoid the current water crisis. Then Maharishi told the people to pray Sri Ganesh. Ganesha heeded to the prayers of the devotees and took form of a crow and went to Agasthiyar’s place. With his nose he toppled the hand pot sideward and made the Cauvery caught inside to flow out.

We live in a culture with deep rooted beliefs and without our conscious choice some of them percolate deep within us. Those seven years of stay in America my life was not the same. Mornings were with the bright sky and vermillion sunshine, absence of Crows made it unusual and foreign. If I explained my faith and belief people would often think I am too complex a creature. Those mornings without these guys will never be the same, I would rather live in a place and wake up the songs of the birds rather than the motoring noise of this civilization.

From the generation that grew up with Amar Chitra Katha and Panchatantra Stories to the generation of Cartoon Network Crows and other animals have been used as moral messengers but Crows are the foremost of all. A crow is an extended family of any Brahminical household in South India. There are experience, tales and legends that older folks in our house will share. An hour long journey that started in my very own balcony traversed through alleys of sentiments and dingy corners of religious faith and beliefs and through the dense mountains of Coorg and ended when I settled in for the last page on The Hindu.