May 2016 – Ramana's Musings

I Always Wondered Why!

Lin has once again come up with an enigmatic topic for the weekly Friday LBC posts. Please do go over to her blog and Shackman’s to see what they have to say on this topic.

Frankly, unlike other topics that I have tackled so far, this one stumps me. It is for the simple reason that other than to wonder in retrospect about somethings that I did in the past, I rarely wonder about why others do things or things happen. Those rare occasions will be when someone does something totally out of character and bizarre. Such events are rare enough for me not to be bothered too much. Bizarre things do happen and I do read about them in the papers, but they rarely happen to people I know personally and to that extent, other than a passing interest in the story, I don’t get too deeply involved in wondering why that person had to do whatever it was that was done.

Occasionally I do wonder why my life turned out the way it did because I rarely had anything to do with many incidents that led from one development to another and eventually into a rather mundane retired life. Things kept happening to me without me having initiated anything other than be in the right place at the right time with time and ability available for a zig zag career to develop, blossom and eventually lead to retirement.

Other than this one major wonderment, I really don’t much wonder why. I suppose that I am not curious enough.

A Meme.

Grannymar has posted a meme.

My variation of Grannymar’s Meme.

Every answer must start with the first letter of your name.

Name – Rummuser
Colour – Red
Career – Romeo
Hobby – Reading
Animal – Reindeer
Boys Name – Ranjan
Girls Name – Ranjani
Drink – Rasam (Mulligatawny soup)
Food – Rice and curry
Fruit – Raisin
Place – Ratnagiri
Movie – Rambo
Something you wear – Ring
Something found in bathroom – Rug
Reason to be late – Rain

You Know You’re A Foreigner When….

Another inspired topic from Lin for the weekly Friday LBC blog post, which no doubt comes from the fact that she is a domiciled foreigner where she lives.

My own take on the subject is based on my experiences traveling overseas.

The first obvious one of course in language. Despite being fluent in English, it is a disadvantage in most countries of the world. Imagine poor old me in the middle of Germany or France! You can read the Roman script on signs but cannot make sense out of them and most people that you try to communicate with turn out to be non English speaking.

On the other hand, traveling to say Bangladesh or Pakistan or Dubai, the last because most locals are Indians or Pakistanis, one feels comfortable that he is among people who share a linguistic heritage with you.

The second one is of course your appearance. I would stand out like a sore thumb in say a place like Hong Kong or for that matter anywhere in Europe due to my colour or facial features.

The last is food. Imagine landing up at a party as a guest of one of the invitees only to find the earlier two disadvantages plus the exotic spread on the table. Being a vegetarian has its own disadvantages and trying to find if a dish is one or not from people who speak a different language is not easy!

Needless to say, I have experienced all the three as well as some more unsavoury prejudice induced behaviour about which I would rather not write.

Calamities.

When I had suggested this topic for the weekly Friday LBC post, a major earthquake was all in the news and I suggested this off the cuff. Since then there have been other earthquakes in Japan, in South America, in Afghanistan and so on so forth. There have also been floods and wildfires and the latest are in Canada and India.

Calamities like the fires that are now raging in a part of our country have been traced back to man made problems just as many other natural calamities now are being blamed on things like climate change which many blame on human beings. The floods that hit parts of South India a few months ago were again blamed squarely on problems created by human beings, in not releasing water from dams on time, using up land meant to prevent flooding for construction of homes and offices and so on.

Calamities therefore can now come in not only due to natural causes like earth quakes, but fires, drought and floods can and do come from careless human beings. Climate change for instance needs the urgent attention of all of us and somehow, I don’t see enough being done to address this issue on a war footing. Here is a case to buttress my argument. We also now have drought in India which too needs a long term solution by sustainable means of water conservation many models of which are available within the country.

Other developments that go under the classification of calamities like train derailing, mass automobile accidents etc by and large are man made and they too need attention towards prevention.

Growing Up Vs Growing Old.

Shackman’s suggestion for the weekly Friday LBC post is a favourite topic among some people who are growing old physically but who claim that they are not growing up. I envy them. I wish that I could have stayed at my youth mentally.

Surely such talk or shall we say, wishful thinking is just that. One cannot really stop growing up any more than stop growing old. Degrees of such growth can be subject to discussion or observation, but we cannot completely stop either process.

We can certainly use the phrase as a whole with some tweakings for different contexts for humour but in reality, I am afraid that at least in my opinion, both processes are unstoppable.