Last week Jay Leno while making fun of Romney's wealth showed some lowly houses as belonging to some politicians and showed GOLDEN TEMPLE AS THE summer house of Romney on some American lake.It indeed was a nice satire and got a nice quick laugh
.
SGPC ShrimonyGurudwara Prabhandak Committee the management committee of the temple was not amused and protested in the election season in Punjab.Government of India could not miss the opportunity and filed an official complaint to the us department of state for this insult.
IT WOULD BE FUNNY IF IT WAS NOT TRUE.
It is sad that Rushdie was not allowed to address the Jaipur literary festival LIVE.Government was afraid of the complainers .I guess freedom of speech does not mean the same in India as in US.Many of attendees made fun of silly ban of Salman Rushdies books in India.Some of them recited from his writings on the stage.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
JANUARY 23 THE BIRTHDAY OF NETAJI SUBHASH .
Long ago when i was a kid .I had a special place for Netaji in my heart.Their were some Sepoys who worked with dad.These were no lowly sepoys as their rank would denote.They were outstanding proud people.One day dad told me that they were former soldiers of Azzad Hind Fauj of Netaji.It was before India became free and independent.
They were proud of their service with Netaji.I wanted to know all they knew about Netaji.Was he still alive or what they believed.How was the life in his army..Sadly later i found out that their service was not recognised by free India. In spite of this all they were no bitter soldiers.They loved me for my love of Netaji and my interest in their life as his soldiers.
On 23 January we would meet at Netajis BUST on top of the Bridge(PULL) in Amritsar.I was may be seventeen or so.I remember missing my DAV College for this event ,not that i was such a serious student .This is for sure one of the memorable occasion for me to miss some classes.
What I said that day was a young mans logic which i still hold true in its essence.I said if Hitler had won the second world war Netaji would have been the reason for India's independence.For sure i still believe that second world war had made British so weak that they had to let India be free.
For what we know about Hitler no body could love him for his cruelty and hatred.They say all is fare in love and war so i think I support Netaji's action to join enemies of British in India's struggle for freedom.
From that day on i was loved by many INA soldiers and we developed great mutual affection.
Every time I see this day on Calender it reminds me of my childhood and Netaji's bust and those great freedom fighters of Azzad Hind Fauj who never got recognised by free India.
Jai Hind
They were proud of their service with Netaji.I wanted to know all they knew about Netaji.Was he still alive or what they believed.How was the life in his army..Sadly later i found out that their service was not recognised by free India. In spite of this all they were no bitter soldiers.They loved me for my love of Netaji and my interest in their life as his soldiers.
On 23 January we would meet at Netajis BUST on top of the Bridge(PULL) in Amritsar.I was may be seventeen or so.I remember missing my DAV College for this event ,not that i was such a serious student .This is for sure one of the memorable occasion for me to miss some classes.
What I said that day was a young mans logic which i still hold true in its essence.I said if Hitler had won the second world war Netaji would have been the reason for India's independence.For sure i still believe that second world war had made British so weak that they had to let India be free.
For what we know about Hitler no body could love him for his cruelty and hatred.They say all is fare in love and war so i think I support Netaji's action to join enemies of British in India's struggle for freedom.
From that day on i was loved by many INA soldiers and we developed great mutual affection.
Every time I see this day on Calender it reminds me of my childhood and Netaji's bust and those great freedom fighters of Azzad Hind Fauj who never got recognised by free India.
Jai Hind
Friday, January 6, 2012
Amartya Sen Nobel prize winner writes for HINDU. Very thought provoking.
The glory and the blemishes of the Indian news media
The Hindu AMARTYA SEN: “The political support for tolerating — and defending — the present profligacy in catering to the relatively better off contrasts sharply with the fiscal alarm bells that are sounded whenever proposals for helping the poor, the hungry, the chronically unemployed come up.” Photo: S.R. Raghunathan
Our free media, including our largely unfettered press, are a hugely important asset for democratic India. And yet the celebration of the Indian news media can go only so far — and no further. There are at least two barriers to quality that need to be overcome. The first is some real laxity in professionalism in achieving accuracy. The second is the bias, often implicit, in the choice of what news to cover and what to ignore, and the way this bias relates particularly to class divisions in India.
One of the great achievements of India is our free and vibrant press. This is an accomplishment of direct relevance to the working of democracy. Authoritarianism flourishes not only by stifling opposition, but also by systematically suppressing information. The survival and flowering of Indian democracy owes a great deal to the freedom and vigour of our press. There are so many occasions when, sitting even in Europe or in America, I have wished for something like the vigour and many-sided balance of the Indian press to confront the vilification of chosen targets.
One longstanding example of some moment is the organised mischaracterisation in the USA of the British National Health Service and similar public health arrangements in most of Europe. Despite the fact that America has some superb newspapers, such as The New York Times, the information industry has managed to undermine thoroughly the understanding of the great accomplishments of public health care in Europe, and its contribution to enhancing health security, life expectancy, and the quality of life. Rather, the National Health Service and other such medical arrangements are often seen as some kind of a “health lock-up,” generating a widespread horror of what is called “socialised medicine” (I have heard of a rumour that American children are persuaded to eat broccoli by threatening them with “socialised medicine” as a dreaded alternative).
Professionalism and accuracy
Despite the limitations of the Indian news media, some of which I will discuss presently, we have every reason to applaud our free media, including our largely unfettered press, as a hugely important asset for democratic India. And yet the celebration of the Indian media can go only so far — and no further. There are at least two huge barriers to quality that are very worth discussing: one is concerned with the internal discipline of the media and the other relates to the relation between the media and society. The first problem is that of some real laxity in professionalism in achieving accuracy, which can be harmed even without any deliberate intention to mislead or misinform. The second is the bias — often implicit — in the choice of what news to cover and what to ignore, and the way this bias relates particularly to class divisions in India.
Indian reporting can be, and often is, extremely good. I always marvel at the skill of the reporters, often very young men and women, in being able to capture and bring out the nuances of points that are hard to summarise accurately. However, Indian reporting is characterised by great heterogeneity, and sometimes serious inaccuracies can receive widespread circulation through the media (or initiating in the media). While I have been personally lucky, most of the time, I am aware of problems that others have had, and sometimes I see them in my own experience. As an Indian reader, I would like to be sure, when I open the morning newspaper, that what I am reading — that A said B — is actually accurate. It is hard to have that assurance.
Let me give a couple of examples, despite — I should re-emphasise — my generally good experience with reporting in the press. Four days ago in a public discussion I said in answer to a question about the Lokpal initiative that the solution to the extremely important problem of corruption would have to be sought within the Indian democratic system (including our courts and Parliament), and also that I had not seen the blueprint of any effective Lokpal Bill – neither from the government nor from any faction of the Opposition.
When, later on, I opened the web, I found reports with the following headlines: “Lokpal Bill well thought out: Amartya Sen” (The Times of India, India Today, Zee News, NDTV, among others); and “Lokpal Bill not well thought out: Amartya Sen” (DNA News, Money Control, The Telegraph [which did not make it a headline], among others). One paper first distributed the former story and then the latter, without noting that there is a correction here, and I was amused because it is a paper — The Economic Times — with which I am personally associated, since I was given the privilege of editing the paper for one day a few years ago (it was a great day for me, though I gather from the Editor that I drove them all mad, by rejecting entries and asking for several rewrites).
Based on another meeting in Kolkata on the same day, a lecture for the Cancer Foundation of India, I found the following headlines: “To smoke is individual option” (The Statesman) and “Curb smokers' liberty: Amartya” (Hindustan Times). All this is just from one day. Unfortunately, a misreport on one day can have quite big consequences. The Times of India said on December 15: “Amartya Sen: People on street can't deal with corruption.” I had said nothing of the sort, as the audio record of the speech confirms, but once that misreporting, coming from a news agency apparently used by many newspapers, is in the public domain, it is hardly surprising that I would be showered with rebuke and moral advice. Dozens of pages of denunciations materialised immediately. Much of the moral advice to me would be sensible enough had the statement reflected something I had said. The one I liked best said: “I think Mr. Sen should keep his mouth shut” — an eminently sensible piece of advice given the constant danger of misreporting by a careless press — or, as in this case, a careless news agency on which many papers mechanically rely.
What I had, in fact, said was that the judgment and penalty for corruption cannot be a matter for street justice, and must come through the democratic procedures that we cherish in India, including the courts and Parliament. I believe the Indian people are fully committed to that democratic priority, rather than “summary justice.” What they really complain about is that the democratic procedures are not being applied sufficiently vigorously and stringently to corruption. This is indeed an important demand, and this understanding is very far from any dismissal of the ability of “street people” to comprehend the political challenge arising from corruption. Since I have taken part in street demonstrations myself, complaining about many injustices in India (one recent activity of this kind was related to the public agitation for the right to food), I must stand up for the right of ordinary folks — what the news agency called the “street people” — to be heard loud and clear.
On enhancing accuracy
So what can the media do to deal with the lapses from accuracy in reporting? I don't know the answer — my main intention here is to raise the question — but one thought that is fairly straightforward is to get all the newspapers to agree to publish corrections of their own stories as a regular feature (and highlight them online, along with the corrected accounts). This is done with much effectiveness by The Guardian and The New York Times, and some Indian papers already have such a section (the host of this essay, The Hindu, has had this for many years), but the practice can be made more universal among the papers, and also more active and more well-known.
There is also an issue of journalistic training. Taking notes in a rush is never easy, and it has become harder still since most reporters today, unlike those in the past, do not know shorthand. But there are marvellous recording devices in our modern world, and they can perhaps be used more uniformly, rather than the reporters tending to rely on memory, as many still seem to do. There are surely other ways of reducing inadvertent inaccuracy, and it would be nice to see more discussion on it. But now I must move to the second problem to which I referred.
Class bias
If greater accuracy is mainly an internal challenge for the media, avoiding — and fighting — class bias involves an external challenge that relates to the divisiveness of the Indian society. Of course, class divisions are present elsewhere as well. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has drawn attention to what it sees as the contrast between the very prosperous — the 1 per cent at the top — and the rest of the 99 per cent in the United States. I will not comment here on the veracity of this 1%-99% contrast, as applied to the United States, but relying on a similar division in India would miss the mark by a long margin. There are, of course, many divisions in India — and some apply to newspaper ownership as well — but the division that introduces a generic bias in Indian news coverage, related to the interest of the newspaper reading public, is more like one between a fortunate fifth of the population who are doing just fine on the basis of the economic progress that is taking place in India, and the rest who are being left firmly behind.
There is, in fact, a substantial part of the Indian population — a minority but still very large in absolute numbers — for whom India's economic growth is working well, along with those who were already comparatively privileged. An exaggerated concentration on their lives, which the Indian media tend typically to display, gives an unreal picture of the rosiness of what is happening to Indians in general. There tends to be fulsome coverage in the news media of the lifestyles of the fortunate, and little notice of the concerns of the less fortunate. To refer to three of many unfortunate facts (the list can be quite long): (1) India has the highest percentage of undernourished children in the entire world, measured in terms of the standard criteria; (2) India spends a far lower percentage of its GNP than China on government-provided health care and has a much lower life expectancy; and (3) India's average rank among South Asian countries — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan — in the standard social indicators, varying from life expectancy and immunisation to infant mortality and girls' schooling, has dropped over the last twenty years from being second-best to second-worst (even as India has surged ahead in terms of GNP per capita).
The problem here does not, of course, originate in the media, for it is social division that feeds this bias in coverage. But the media can play a more constructive part in keeping the reality of India persistently in the view of the public. The bias in coverage, even though it is by no means unpleasant to the reader, contributes quite heavily to the political apathy about the urgency of remedying the extreme deprivation of the Indian underprivileged. Since the fortunate group includes not only business leaders and the professional classes, but also the bulk of the country's intellectuals, the story of unusual national advancement gets, directly or indirectly, much aired — making an alleged reality out of what is at best a very partial story.
What is probed and what ignored
The group of relatively privileged and increasingly prosperous Indians can easily fall for the temptation to assume that given the high rate of economic growth, there is no particular need for special social efforts to enhance the lives of people. When, for example, the government introduced, as it did recently, its plan of providing subsidised food for the Indian poor, an enormous number of critics pointed immediately to the fiscal problems involved, and some even talked about the sheer “irresponsibility” that is allegedly reflected in the Food Security Bill.
There are indeed many serious problems with the Food Security Bill that has been tabled, and the Bill can be much improved and one hopes it will be. Furthermore, fiscal responsibility is certainly a serious issue and the financing of food subsidies, like other social programmes, demands critical examination. But it is worth asking why there is hardly any media discussion about other revenue-involving problems, such as the exemption of diamond and gold from customs duty, which, according to the Ministry of Finance, involves a loss of a much larger amount of revenue (Rs.50,000 crore per year) than the additional cost involved in the Food Security Bill (Rs.27,000 crore). The total “revenue forgone” under different headings, presented in the Ministry document, an annual publication, is placed at the staggering figure of Rs.511,000 crore per year. This is, of course, a big overestimation of revenue that can be actually obtained (or saved), since many of the revenues allegedly forgone would be difficult to capture — and so I am not accepting that rosy evaluation. And yet it is hard to understand why the cost of the Food Security Bill should be separated out for fiscal gloom without examining other avenues of fiscal soundness. An active media can draw attention to what is being probed and what remains underdiscussed and underexplored.
The impact of India's division between the privileged and the non-privileged can also be seen in the political power of the advocates of continuing — and expanding — subsidies on fuel use, even those that go particularly to the relatively rich (such as petrol for car owners), or of fertilizers, which yield major transfers of a regressive kind, even as they help with agricultural production. It is possible to redesign these fiscal arrangements to introduce more economic rationality, greater environmental awareness, and the demands of equity with efficiency. The political support for tolerating — and defending — the present profligacy in catering to the relatively better off contrasts sharply with the fiscal alarm bells that are sounded whenever proposals for helping the poor, the hungry, the chronically unemployed come up.
If the first problem I referred to, that of accuracy, is one of improving the performance of the news media through better quality control, the second, transcending class bias, concerns the media's role in reporting and discussing the problems of the country in a balanced way. The media can greatly help in the functioning of Indian democracy and the search for a better route to progress including all the people — and not just the more fortunate part of Indian society. What is central to the functioning of the news media in Indian democracy is the combination of accuracy with the avoidance of bias. The two problems, thus, complement each other.
(Amartya Sen, the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998. The Bharat Ratna was conferred on him in 1999.)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Bhilwara India.
Bhilwara is a town(now bustling)in Rajasthan India.I virtually grew up here.In my development it played an important role.I learned to wander here .To walk for hours in fields and streets was norm not exception in those days.We walked( me and Shamu and Amrik)Even when we had a bike as we were not going anywhere.I guess homes were not condusive to conversation so streets were used or may be thats why they were invented.In our case that would have to be the reason.And drinking cheap tea from street vendors( even when we had no money)Amrik mostly paid for it he worked in mines and factories and always appeared magically after ten pm .It was not that we were exploiting his generosity.I would mention to him how much money i had in my pocket and he always seemed to make up the shortfall or entire charges for tea.I am sure at times we must have shared a cup of tea which in my memory were 7 paisa for pre made tea(today there are 50 rupees in a dollar and their were 100 paisa in one rupee) Figure it out you could buy 14 cups of tea for 2 cents .Kids in america could collect five cents by looking for empty coke bottles in those days and a kid named Amrik singh like the american kid paid for the Tea (chai).By the way the special tea made to order was called special had more milk and made to order but i think it did not taste any better.Besides you will have to waite till it was made and pay 15 paisa.
In my memory those were best of time.His genorisity did not make us beholden to him.must have been best of friendship as the view of any of us is not altered by any financial roles in buying chai.It was understood that the one who had the money normally paid.That was where i mostly used my discretionary funds.My sister was also very kind and some times gave me her allowance.
In my memory those were best of time.His genorisity did not make us beholden to him.must have been best of friendship as the view of any of us is not altered by any financial roles in buying chai.It was understood that the one who had the money normally paid.That was where i mostly used my discretionary funds.My sister was also very kind and some times gave me her allowance.
Monday, October 17, 2011
My couple of days in New Delhi
Hello Sri,and every body
I am doing fine.This is midnight of 14 Th October.journey was OK .Please send me number of Hima.My number is 0941 703 7855.I have been checking out New Delhi.More have changed and more have stayed the same.Respect for the ordinary people is extremely lacking in the officialdom.
Went to Raj Ghat and India Gate and they were sort of cordoned off and people were not allowed to sit near on the grass.No body was there to inform the public what was happening.Security was told not to let people sit on grass .People honored this without question for fear of abuse.
Akshar Dham( A grand temple built by BAPS} was beautiful and well organised and planned in every aspect.Restrictions on diaries and notebooks were not needed. I am sure that it would discourage many artists from promoting their art and art education.Self explanatory info was good.
Highest position was given to their Guru and most decorative part was for the founder Swami. Deities of Hinduism had beautiful but lesser representation.Their food was as always in very good and served in efficient manner. Here again people were not allowed to sit on floor and limited facilities were available for handicap people.Excess emphasis was put on security and keeping people from taking pictures.
Visited National museum.I found two unique miniature painting from Rajasthan of eighteenth century depicting Madonna and Son( Jesus) and other had Madonna breast feeding baby Jesus.I was pleased that they were part of the collection.Manuscripts exhibition was under construction ,so was denied entry.
Tickets for foreigners were 300 rupees and Indian nationals was 10 rupees and no extra services were provided for them.Do not like being discriminated.Then as a true Indian did not tell them and they charged me 10 rupees.When i asked them if one could take pictures he said after paying twenty rupees.Did not pay it and still took Pictures .
There was security staff getting bored in exhibition area and no curators. It would have been much better if these security staff was trained to provide the info or curating staff was present to answer the questions.
Bathrooms in most places i visited were much cleaner than i remembered.At Raj Ghat ( where Gandhi's grave is they were in bad conditions and smelled bad.Water was not available in bath room.I saw only two men urinating in open which is pretty decent for two days.
At the airport(new ) bathrooms had marble fixtures which needed continuous cleaning and one man was continuously doing it for about twenty sinks and toilets.
Many planes had arrived at the same time nobody was guiding people.Was a large line at the immigration counters, several of them were closed but officials though older handled the visitors very well and efficiently
Duty free shop was friendly and liquor was being sold at good pace.Had a cup of tea at Costa coffee for 95 rupees( about two dollars) Tea was made in steamed milk and using tea bags.The person working their told me they pay 30 thousand rupees daily rent.The tea was may be ten ounces.
I forgot to tell that airline had good service and polite employees.This is Etihad airline .Was booked solid from Abu Dhabi.It allowes two 23 killo bags and two small carry on bags.Other than make my trip charging 950 dollars instead of web price of 911 every thing went well.I have impression that 950 dollar price is also a good price.Even the Arabs working at airport were polite.
India is becoming Polite.Metro is efficient and overcrowded.Their are ladies compartments.I saw much fewer women travel in regular trains.Trains were clean and efficient.You could hear all announcements well may be my ear filters were tuned right( haha)
Three Wheeler scooter rickshaws are efficient loud and bumpy.Some times they are smokey also.They use CNG.Most of the artisans and workers are from UP or Bihar.Two of the poorest states in the country.Even the poorest person told me they had two kids good sign.
Saw three kids at 4 years begging and weaving in and out of traffic.I was told by the rickshaw driver their parents were near by and exploited and abused the kids I wonder if theses people were part of beggars mafia as depicted in Mistry in his books.None of the children were deformed.I counted about four kids in this family so they are not following national advisory on family size and had time for sex even if not for work.
I was also told most labor earned 300 rupees per day That gives them wages of 9000 that is about 200 dollars per month..
All people seemed to be busy.
One thing I always found is stray dogs Dogs were not aggressive but roaming around.and was told Manica Ghandhi ( member of parliament and daughter in law of Nehru Gandhi family in the name of human treatment for animals has created a public nsense.I hope in the name of publkc service she would run a campaign to spade or neutor all dogs so none of the stray dogs are allowed and public is saved from this menace in ten years.
One thing more and last about my uncle and aunt with whom i am staying in Delhi,.They are a lovely couple in seventies.They are very self suficient.My Uncle does all small chores.They do not have a live in servant. For sure they could afford one.Aunty cooks all the meals and they live simple and very wholesome life.They read about five news papers daily.They chat daily with their daughters who are married and have one son each in teens.
Something about their house.They have power inverters for the house which maintains lights and fans running and they work automatically.They have installed western style toilets That helps as we all get old and has problem with knees.They have water filtration system Reverse osmosis for drinking water.They have Internet,cable TV and phone and cell phone which cost them about 60 dollars a month while we pay at least 200 dollars per month for theses service in USA.They have 36 inch wide doors and no thrash hold for easy movement.They have also tried to reduce pollution and use resources wisely.They live as well in Delhi as they could live in US.Power issues and all other problems they have resolved in a practical manner.
They are a perfect couple in harmony.
yours
kul bhushan
On 16th i will be going to Chandigarh .
Ps it seems i will be leaving Delhi on 18th morning
I am doing fine.This is midnight of 14 Th October.journey was OK .Please send me number of Hima.My number is 0941 703 7855.I have been checking out New Delhi.More have changed and more have stayed the same.Respect for the ordinary people is extremely lacking in the officialdom.
Went to Raj Ghat and India Gate and they were sort of cordoned off and people were not allowed to sit near on the grass.No body was there to inform the public what was happening.Security was told not to let people sit on grass .People honored this without question for fear of abuse.
Akshar Dham( A grand temple built by BAPS} was beautiful and well organised and planned in every aspect.Restrictions on diaries and notebooks were not needed. I am sure that it would discourage many artists from promoting their art and art education.Self explanatory info was good.
Highest position was given to their Guru and most decorative part was for the founder Swami. Deities of Hinduism had beautiful but lesser representation.Their food was as always in very good and served in efficient manner. Here again people were not allowed to sit on floor and limited facilities were available for handicap people.Excess emphasis was put on security and keeping people from taking pictures.
Visited National museum.I found two unique miniature painting from Rajasthan of eighteenth century depicting Madonna and Son( Jesus) and other had Madonna breast feeding baby Jesus.I was pleased that they were part of the collection.Manuscripts exhibition was under construction ,so was denied entry.
Tickets for foreigners were 300 rupees and Indian nationals was 10 rupees and no extra services were provided for them.Do not like being discriminated.Then as a true Indian did not tell them and they charged me 10 rupees.When i asked them if one could take pictures he said after paying twenty rupees.Did not pay it and still took Pictures .
There was security staff getting bored in exhibition area and no curators. It would have been much better if these security staff was trained to provide the info or curating staff was present to answer the questions.
Bathrooms in most places i visited were much cleaner than i remembered.At Raj Ghat ( where Gandhi's grave is they were in bad conditions and smelled bad.Water was not available in bath room.I saw only two men urinating in open which is pretty decent for two days.
At the airport(new ) bathrooms had marble fixtures which needed continuous cleaning and one man was continuously doing it for about twenty sinks and toilets.
Many planes had arrived at the same time nobody was guiding people.Was a large line at the immigration counters, several of them were closed but officials though older handled the visitors very well and efficiently
Duty free shop was friendly and liquor was being sold at good pace.Had a cup of tea at Costa coffee for 95 rupees( about two dollars) Tea was made in steamed milk and using tea bags.The person working their told me they pay 30 thousand rupees daily rent.The tea was may be ten ounces.
I forgot to tell that airline had good service and polite employees.This is Etihad airline .Was booked solid from Abu Dhabi.It allowes two 23 killo bags and two small carry on bags.Other than make my trip charging 950 dollars instead of web price of 911 every thing went well.I have impression that 950 dollar price is also a good price.Even the Arabs working at airport were polite.
India is becoming Polite.Metro is efficient and overcrowded.Their are ladies compartments.I saw much fewer women travel in regular trains.Trains were clean and efficient.You could hear all announcements well may be my ear filters were tuned right( haha)
Three Wheeler scooter rickshaws are efficient loud and bumpy.Some times they are smokey also.They use CNG.Most of the artisans and workers are from UP or Bihar.Two of the poorest states in the country.Even the poorest person told me they had two kids good sign.
Saw three kids at 4 years begging and weaving in and out of traffic.I was told by the rickshaw driver their parents were near by and exploited and abused the kids I wonder if theses people were part of beggars mafia as depicted in Mistry in his books.None of the children were deformed.I counted about four kids in this family so they are not following national advisory on family size and had time for sex even if not for work.
I was also told most labor earned 300 rupees per day That gives them wages of 9000 that is about 200 dollars per month..
All people seemed to be busy.
One thing I always found is stray dogs Dogs were not aggressive but roaming around.and was told Manica Ghandhi ( member of parliament and daughter in law of Nehru Gandhi family in the name of human treatment for animals has created a public nsense.I hope in the name of publkc service she would run a campaign to spade or neutor all dogs so none of the stray dogs are allowed and public is saved from this menace in ten years.
One thing more and last about my uncle and aunt with whom i am staying in Delhi,.They are a lovely couple in seventies.They are very self suficient.My Uncle does all small chores.They do not have a live in servant. For sure they could afford one.Aunty cooks all the meals and they live simple and very wholesome life.They read about five news papers daily.They chat daily with their daughters who are married and have one son each in teens.
Something about their house.They have power inverters for the house which maintains lights and fans running and they work automatically.They have installed western style toilets That helps as we all get old and has problem with knees.They have water filtration system Reverse osmosis for drinking water.They have Internet,cable TV and phone and cell phone which cost them about 60 dollars a month while we pay at least 200 dollars per month for theses service in USA.They have 36 inch wide doors and no thrash hold for easy movement.They have also tried to reduce pollution and use resources wisely.They live as well in Delhi as they could live in US.Power issues and all other problems they have resolved in a practical manner.
They are a perfect couple in harmony.
yours
kul bhushan
On 16th i will be going to Chandigarh .
Ps it seems i will be leaving Delhi on 18th morning
Friday, October 7, 2011
Some poems by new Nobel prize winner Thomas Transtromer in translation.
Seven poems by Tomas Tranströmer
National Insecurity
The Under Secretary leans forward and draws an X
and her ear-drops dangle like swords of Damocles.
As a mottled butterfly is invisible against the ground
so the demon merges with the opened newspaper.
A helmet worn by no one has taken power.
The mother-turtle flees flying under the water.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Translated by Robin Fulton from New and Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer by Robin Fulton, published by Bloodaxe Books (www.bloodaxebooks.com). Copyright © 1997 by Robin Fulton. Reprinted by permission . All rights reserved.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Allegro
After a black day, I play Haydn,
and feel a little warmth in my hands.
The keys are ready. Kind hammers fall.
The sound is spirited, green, and full of silence.
The sound says that freedom exists
and someone pays no tax to Caesar.
I shove my hands in my haydnpockets
and act like a man who is calm about it all.
I raise my haydnflag. The signal is:
“We do not surrender. But want peace.”
The music is a house of glass standing on a slope;
rocks are flying, rocks are rolling.
The rocks roll straight through the house
but every pane of glass is still whole.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Couple
They switch off the light and its white shade
glimmers for a moment before dissolving
like a tablet in a glass of darkness. Then up.
The hotel walls rise into the black sky.
The movements of love have settled, and they sleep
but their most secret thoughts meet as when
two colours meet and flow into each other
on the wet paper of a schoolboy’s painting.
It is dark and silent. But the town has pulled closer
tonight. With quenched windows. The houses have approached.
They stand close up in a throng, waiting,
a crowd whose faces have no expressions.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After a Death
Once there was a shock
that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail.
It keeps us inside. It makes the TV pictures snowy.
It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.
One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun
through brush where a few leaves hang on.
They resemble pages torn from old telephone directories.
Names swallowed by the cold.
It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat
but often the shadow seems more real than the body.
The samurai looks insignificant
beside his armor of black dragon scales.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Track
2 A.M. moonlight. The train has stopped
out in a field. Far off sparks of light from a town,
flickering coldly on the horizon.
As when a man goes so deep into his dream
he will never remember he was there
when he returns again to his view.
Or when a person goes so deep into a sickness
that his days all become some flickering sparks, a swarm,
feeble and cold on the horizon
The train is entirely motionless.
2 o’clock: strong moonlight, few stars.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Under Pressure
The blue sky’s engine-drone is deafening.
We’re living here on a shuddering work-site
where the ocean depths can suddenly open up
shells and telephones hiss.
You can see beauty only from the side, hastily.
The dense grain on the field, many colours in a yellow stream.
The restless shadows in my head are drawn there.
They want to creep into the grain and turn to gold.
Darkness falls. At midnight I go to bed.
The smaller boat puts out from the larger boat.
You are alone on the water.
Society’s dark hull drifts further and further away.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
All translations are by Robert Bly from The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations by Robert Bly, published by Harper Collins. Copyright © 2004 by Robert Bly. Reprinted by permission . All rights reserved.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Blue House
It is a night of radiant sun. I stand in the dense forest and look away toward my house with its hazy-blue walls. As if I had just dies and was seeing the house from a new angle. It has stood for more than eighty summers. Its wood is impregnated with four times joy and three times sorrow. When someone who lived in the house dies, it is repainted. The dead person himself is painting, without a brush, from inside.
Beyond the house, open ground. Once a garden, now grown over. Stationary breakers of weed, pagodas of weed, welling text, Upanishads of weed, a viking fleet of weed, dragons heads of weed, lances, a weed empire! Across the overgrown garden flutters the shadow of a boomerang that is thrown and thrown again. It has something to do with a person who lived in the house long before my time. Almost a child. An impulse comes from him, a thought, a thought like an act of will: “make… draw….” To reach out of his fate.
The house is like a child’s drawing. A deputizing childishness that grew because someone—much too soon— gave up his mission to be a child. Open the door, step in! In here there’s unrest in the ceiling and peace in the walls. Above the bed hangs a painting of a ship with seventeen sails, hissing wave crests, and a wind that the gilt frame can’t contain.
It’s always so early in here, before the crossroads, before the irrevocable choices. Thank you for this life! Still I miss the alternatives. The sketches, all of them, want to become real. A ship’s engine far away on the water expands the summer-night horizon. Both joy and sorrow swell in the dew’s magnifying glass. Without really knowing, we diving; our life has a sister ship, following quietly another route. While the sun blazes behind the islands.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
From The Blue House, translated by Göran Malmqvist, published by Thunder City Press. Copyright © 1987 by Goran Malmqvist. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Thomas Transtromer is new Nobel prize winner for literature and that also for poetry.
Thomas Transtromer the new Nobel Prize winner of literature is 80 years old and Swede.This is a nice way to expose, not that well known artists to the English language readers.Besides he is a poet.Nice to have poets recognized for their work.
After Mario Vargas Llohsa (last years Nobel winner) who gave some nice material to read and comment on, i hope to be reading Transtromer.Sadly i will be reading him also in translation.Both of these winners are English language proficient and so i hope their translation convey gist of their original works.I am sure uniqueness of all languages can not be be fully conveyed even by best of translators.Translating poetry to poetry in other language is monumental task it is good that they were translated before they became Nobel winners.
Congratulations to Mr Transtromer.
After Mario Vargas Llohsa (last years Nobel winner) who gave some nice material to read and comment on, i hope to be reading Transtromer.Sadly i will be reading him also in translation.Both of these winners are English language proficient and so i hope their translation convey gist of their original works.I am sure uniqueness of all languages can not be be fully conveyed even by best of translators.Translating poetry to poetry in other language is monumental task it is good that they were translated before they became Nobel winners.
Congratulations to Mr Transtromer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
