January 2014 – Ramana's Musings

My Epitaph.

RIP
RUMMUSER

HE LAUGHED TO HIS DEATH

WHILE

SOLVING CROSSWORD PUZZLES.

In my case, there is unlikely to be an epitaph but very likely that this would be my obituary announcement in our newspapers.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where six of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic was chosen by Delirious who does not write LBC posts any more but visits all the blogs and leaves very interesting comments. The five other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, gaelikaa, Maxi, Paul, Shackman, and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

The Jaguar.

Warms my cockles it does.

And why does it do so? I am an anglophile with a streak of jingoism in me. Are you still mystified? Find your answer here.

Going To Seed.

“A fellow of mediocre talent will remain a mediocrity, whether he travels or not; but one of superior talent (which without impiety I cannot deny that I possess) will go to seed if he always remains in the same place.”
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Last February I went to Chennai for a few days and apart from that, I went to New Bombay a few times and went to Kolhapur on a day’s trip. Apart from the Chennai visit, all the other trips were to visit ailing relatives, and friends and were not exactly very inspiring.

2014 on the other hand has started off with a bang with two very exciting trips. The first one was to Chennai again and as was expected very exciting with Ranjan and Manjiri joining me to meet up with all the family. Manjiree was truly impressed with them and has concluded that she has got the best of a weird lot. So much for our pedigree.

The next was earlier this week for a three day trip close by to Khandala for a reunion with some of my class mates from business school and their wives. I had not met a few of them since we graduated in 1967 and the catching up was an amazing experience. Sadly, many could not come due to various reasons and a reckoning also showed that about a third of our class had passed on too.

We stayed and partied at North Point, an Institute founded by one of our classmates and for me, it was a very exciting if somewhat tiring experience with having to climb a lot of stair cases and indulging in some cross-country hiking to go on a picnic, where we flew kites.

Here are some views from my window.

The main entrance to the Institute which will give you an idea of the climbing up and down that it involved.

Among the less strenuous activities was an evening of ghazals by Hasan Ali a Pune singer of great merit. He got so enthused with our enthusiasm that he allowed some of us to sing too and that was hilarious to say the least.

And most important, I drove up to and from Khandala on my own and on return even brought three passengers with me to Pune.

So, I can safely say that having begun on a couple of good traveling gigs and with plans for some more on the anvil, I can safely say that I am unlikely to go to seed at least this coming year.

Fashion And Comfort.

Maxi has this fascinating post on English language for the LBC Friday routine.

I however have a sneaking feeling that even she will find this appalling. Right at the end of the article, you can see how much women will be expected to spend in India to get rid of the unappealing look! Ganesha save them.

Why are women making their lives increasingly uncomfortable for themselves by obsessing about their looks, their clothes, their make up and so on?

I got my first official employment when I was eighteen and was attached to a veteran supervisor who gave me, among many other great tips, one which I have never ignored. This was way back in 1961 when trousers which were called drain pipes and shoes with pointed toes were in fashion and all young people wore them. I was young too!

The old vet took one look at my trousers and shoes and said, “young man, if you want to succeed as a salesman, get into some comfortable clothes in which you can last a ten to twelve hour shift of moving about, traveling by public transport, using public toilets etc”, and sent me home to change into what he specified, comfortable underwear and outerwear and no exceptions. He said, that I could be fashionable in the evenings but I will not be effective during working hours in uncomfortable clothes. I had enough sense to obey him rather than rebel and have never regretted it.

I have passed on that piece of wisdom to many others and I think that it did a lot of good to a lot of people.

Can’t some veterans advise these young women?

After the post went live, I got a forward which I think is synchronicity working overtime for me. Please patiently read this remarkable piece of writing.

Smell!

The Cozy Minimalist, who would prefer that I do not use upper case letters at all in her name, has a post up on her blog talking about various smells that bring back memories for her.

I commented there as. “The olfactory perception can trigger memories like nothing else does. The recent trip that I made down South did precisely that for me and on a few occasions my relatives thought that I was bananas going on and on about some memories like sun dried clothes, special dishes cooking in the kitchen, smell from the neighbourhood bakery / restaurant and most of all, infants smelling of baby talcum powder.”

I feel like kicking myself for omitting the most vibrant smell of them all. The smell of rain water on dry earth.

We had our last rain in September at the end of the monsoon and since then it has been dry. Our garden has been watered everyday from the water mains but today, as I write this, we are having the first of our few winter showers. I woke up from my siesta to the smell and sound of falling rain. What an experience! Priceless.

I wish I could share the sound and the smell with my readers.

Ah, for the simple pleasures of life.

Speaking A Second Language.

I hope that you enjoy reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where six of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic was chosen by The Old Fossil. The five other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, gaelikaa, Maxi, Paul, Shackman, and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

TOF forgot that he has got me in the LBC. Most urban Indians, fluently speak, read and write two languages at least, one of them being English. Many like me are fluent in English and at least two more Indian languages. In my case, I can read, write and speak English, Tamil, Hindi and Marathi and can speak Malalyalam and Gujarthi well enough to comfortably navigate in Gujarat and Kerala.

English despite not being an Indian language is Sine Qua Non in India for being the link language between the many states proud of their own local languages. All attempts to make Hindi the national language so far have failed and learning English as a second language has become an obsession with Indians of languages, states and economic strata.

Any mobile Indian has to be able to manage English, his/her mother tongue and the local language where his career takes him. If he is a salesman or in a job where his work takes him to many states, the more languages he learns to speak, the more successful he is.

The advantages are obvious and I pity those who cannot learn a second language for all that they miss.