The Issue of National Shame

What ticked me off to write this blog was our Prime Minister’s unveiling a report on Malnutrition this week and proudly declaring it a national shame. He is just an example on how Indians in the seat of power and authority fail to deliver and take pride in showcasing their failures. So what is Mr. PM doing about malnutrition more than just admitting it as a national shame? Does he take accountability?

Another study that came to light this week also revealed that 68% of milk in India is adulterated. In a shocking revelation, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has found that around 13% of food stuff is contaminated across the country.

We have a corrupt Government (doesn’t matter State or Center) and to top it off our food is adulterated. Is India really a safe place to live? With 1.3 Billion people, and 50% of them being less than 30 years, are we creating a good crop of  citizens to lead the nation and the world?

But before criticizing the Government and its officials, I decided to take a look at the attitude and genetic make-up of population by and large. So, who is the national shame? Is it the government or the citizens?

So let us walk down the streets in our respective cities to understand our civic duties and disciplines.

To many from outside this may look appalling, but for Indians it has become the way of life. So what is it that you see in Indian streets?

Hygiene, cleanliness, civic sense, honesty all take a back seat!

• I caught my educated neighbor fling a plastic bag of garbage from her balcony into the dumpster across the street. She missed the target by a few feet, but walked back into her living room with a sense of winning an Olympic Gold for getting her trash on the streets.
• 18 months ago while the house was being built, construction happened 24 by 7, and they dumped raw materials and material from the broken down building right on the streets, making the neighborhood uninhabitable.
• The sidewalk in every street is built for pedestrians, but instead they are used for drying clothes, dump heaps of rubbish from their house, parking vehicles, put up shops that sell tea and cigarettes, and sometimes for illegal activities such as drinking and smoking weed.
• We painted notices in our compound wall to ask people not to spit, throw garbage or defecate. Then a year later, we painted pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddess on our compound wall to prevent people from defecating. But nothing prevented them from doing what they want to do.
• 5 years ago, one of the owners in my apartment complex turned their balcony into a room without seeking permission or taking necessary approval from the civic body. This is a culpable offense!
• Every area in the city has a slum or illegal settlement. This almost resembles a beehive and politicians use these hives as vote banks and thus stay away from disturbing the hive.
• We find motorist jump red lights, constantly honk, engage in road rage, and treat pedestrians like cattle to find they way through the traffic.  
• We take pride in paying bribes to get our passports, get out of traffic tickets, obtain driving licenses, building permits, birth and death certificate, electricity, sewage and water connection.
• We falsify rent-receipts, medical bills and LTA claims to evade taxes. But we want to bring back the stashed away black-money in Swiss accounts. Double standards, huh?
• We jump queues, engage in road rage, throw anything and everything on the streets, and commit white collar crimes without any compunction or sense of responsibility.
• Travel on Indian Railways and Buses and find the amount of garbage thrown in the compartments. Toilets in trains and public places make us wonder, what our people eat that it smells so bad.

What does it say about our citizens?

• We can go back to the oldest debate in the world, which came first, the chicken or the egg? But let us understand and acknowledge that we’ve not delivered our civic duties. Why do we expect the Public Works Department to lay roads and maintain them if we cannot keep them clean, safe and habitable?
• We elect our representatives to form the Government and run the Government, when the society on the whole lacks discipline, why do we expect the Government and its office to function efficiently and be bribe free.
• Our literacy rates have improved since independence, but sadly education and literacy doesn’t seem to direct correlation to improve the society and quality of life. We have found education and literacy are used to circumvent law and commit intelligent crimes.
• For an average Indian today, it is all about “I” and “Me”. I want my house to be clean, I want to go fast, I want my greed to be satisfied, I want to be happy even if I violate rules and cause inconvenience to the public. We don’t mind bribing government officials, breaking rules and laws to make things work for us.
• Why are we so selfish and hypocritical? Why are we expecting the Government and its officials to be squeaky clean and deliver on their promises when we can’t dispense our civic responsibility and take accountability?

This is an ideal example of what happens when the value system in a society collapses. So who is the national shame? 

We have the next generation growing up in a corrupt society, where lawlessness is the way of life. May be the PM is right about the malnutrition report being a national shame. We as a society suffer from malnutrition of values and are willingly passing it on to the next generation.

There is nothing wrong in being a poor country, but everything is wrong if you are a corrupt country. Next time you complain about the Government for being inefficient and corrupt and the judicial system being for blinded, look at the mirror and ask yourself: have you delivered on my promises and have you been a law abiding citizen? So let us be the change we want to see in the world around us.

Neel starts with A for Ahiri and goes to D for Dhanyasi

My nephew is just 4 years and 10 months and is learning music, but he has not been taught Mayamma in Ahiri.  He has just heard his mother sing this difficult Ahiri krithi by Shyama Sastri. He doesn’t put taalam, yet starts at the beat, sing most of the sangatis, shows the swarupam of Ahiri and gives finishing touches to the song as well. He holds his breath to complete the long phrase, and even sings in mandra and thara sthayi. Dikshithar/Shyama Sastri songs are loaded with not so commonly used sanskrit words and he gets most of them right. Ahiri is not an easy ragam, but for him it seems like childs play.

We discovered him sing Mayamma by accident. We thought he was playing by himself in the living room, but we faintly heard a voice singing. At first my mother thought it could be someone on the radio or music from neighbors house, but when we came closer he was rendering Mayamma.

I definitely don't want to misuse or loosely use the word prodigy here. It is the power of hearing and kids repeat what they hear, be it Mayamma or Kolaveri di. During my morning prayers I stopped chanting Pancha Sooktham and made him sing this for the puja. The innocence in his rendition is what I loved the most. I didn't want to miss capturing and sharing such moments with you. Taking what we've been blessed with and offering back to almighty was the Trinity way. It doesn't matter if he doesn't become a performing musician, but I want him to sing with atmost devotion, the Trinity way.

Last night he was in bed and looked like he suddenly remembered Mayuranatham Anisam. He started singing loudly and I was in the other room and my mother didnt disturbed him and immediately called me from her mobile. I heard him sing the whole song and I was thrilled and moved. When he finished i opened the room and got him in my arms and gave him a big hug.  

I really don't know how many songs this kid has stored in his memory, but every song he renders excites me and inspires me.

Musical Agnathavasam and post come back!

After a span of nearly 20 years I heard Sankaran Namboothiri (SN) at Music Academy this December season. There was no doubt that it was SN’s musical talent and pedigree that earned him a slot then and now, and there was no back-door entry or Tatkal route.

Sometimes I wonder if such an agnathavasam is required to season their music and leave a lasting impression in the minds of the audience. Before filling the halls with not just audience but fans and earning the Sangita Kalanidhi (SK) title, Late Maharajapuram Santhanam was away in Colombo, Srilanka teaching and heading the Music College. Similarly SK T. Viswanathan had been teaching at Wesleyan University, North America and this year’s Sangita Kalanidhi Dr. Trichy Sankaran at York University, Canada and away from the local scene for 40 years. Should we attribute their success to their sabbatical from the local scene? Is such an absence a necessary in every performing musician’s career?

In their years that they were away so many musicians sprouted, established their roots in Chennai and shoots in Cleaveland and vice-versa. But none of these musicians were worried about their absence, bothered by insecurity from the raise of other musicians and their peers, and abruptly leaving their fans behind. They believed good music will always have an audience and will fill halls.

Thought 1: Should we re-run the experiment with the popular artists of today like Sudha, Sanjay, TM Krishna, Bombay Jayashree, Aruna Sayeeram, etc and reintroduce them into the scene 20 years from now. Would their music become more melodic with mellowed down egos?

In the early 90s Carnatic music world saw some towering musicians like Sangita Kalanidhis’ Dr. S. Ramanathan, ML. Vasanthakumari, Maharajapuram Santhanam pass away. The scene was perfect for new breed to youngsters to be introduced.The next breed of crop like Sudha, Sowmya, Sanjay, Unnikrishnan and many others like Bombay Jayashree arrived from across the country to fill the void of their masters. Music connoisseurs didn’t know where to go and fondly thronged the halls to hear the maestros’ songs in the voice of their young sishyas’. As young and upcoming musicians it was always not easy to fill-in their guru’s shoes and deliver against their expectations. Their brisk and fresh music won them ardent fans and took them to places. But sadly the learning curve for many of these musicians failed to keep in pace with their growth curve. Rasikas who felt stagnated moved on to learn and hear other musicians. Shouldn’t artist help the rasikas gradute to the next level? Why would rasikas want to hear the same songs from the same musician again and again? Does predictability bring in boredom?

My friend argued that SK MS Subbulakshmi in her last 20 years of her career pretty much repeated the same songs again and again. I heard his dismay and unhappiness when OST sang Akshaya Linga Vibho for the nth time at Music Academy this year.

The years of SN’s agnyathavasa, (not mine, but his) had only bettered and not battered his music. But had it only matured to get him from 12noon slot to 1.45 PM slot in twenty years? Every member in the house that afternoon had the same questions: Where had this musician vanished all these years? On that day, he didn’t render rare krithis or use gimmick of any sort to win back the audience, instead SN rendered popular songs in popular ragas to fill the house and hearts again.

Thought 2: Sometimes it makes me wonder why the same Vathapi Ganapathim, Jaya Jaya Swamin, Bhajare Rechita and the same ragas Hamsadwani, Naatai and Kalyani have won people a chance back in the performing arena and earned them Sangita Kalanidhi? Is it the potency of the lyrics, choice of ragas, or above?

What happens when the artist arrives after many years of agnathavasam to empty halls? After a decade gap Hyderabad Brothers sang at Music Academy to almost an empty house. The last time they sang at the same venue they were crowd pullers like other popular artists of today. I must tell you they had a lot of room to stomach an empty hall when the curtains went up. May be this is what agnathavasam does to you. May be the Brothers are at a stage in life where they need not play to the gallery or for personal records. Did Thyagaraja, Dikshithar or Shyama Sastri sing for audience or money?

Thought 3: At Music Academy, you either get slotted or slaughtered!

Come back for more rumblings and ramblings….