Having tried my hand at writing little bit about Ramayana, it follows the natural order of things that I record somethngs about the other great epic Mahabharatha.
I always have a preferance for Mahabharatha for its high story value with so many twists and turns.
In eighth standard we had for our lessons a portion of Mahabharatha in kannada the Aranyaparva. I never knew that it had a great influence on me and later when I read different versions of Mahabharatha and heard it being told by my grnadma, I always remembered vividly the Aranyaparva in kannada. ( I am trying to get hold of that book so that I can re read it again)
It is the phase in the life of Pandavas after they lose in the game of dice all their possessions and are forced to go into the forest for their vana vasa.
Here we get the first glimpse of the first feminist I suppose I can call her that. She blasts Yudishtira for using her as a pawn in the game of dice and asks him how he can suppose he owns her. She vows not to tie her hair till she puts the blood of Dushasana as oil to it and lets her hair down. I would have liked her to take action then and there itself forcing her husband(s) to punish the wrong doers and get the blood immediately. But may be the society was complicated and she had to wait.
The tamil poet bharathi has written an awe inspiring poem about panchali sabadam.
I feel the whole of Aranya parva sort of revolves around Draupadi .
Vyasa the great sage comes to the Pandavas and tells Draupadi the stories of Nala Damayanthi, in detail (which is one more favourite mythological story of mine for the innvovative Damayanthi using her wit to find out about her husband Nala) and also Satyavan Savitri, the great lady who dares to argue with Yama the king of death and beats him in the ensuing dialogue and wins back the life of her husband. The story of Rama and Seeta are also narrated. (there by showing us the precedence of ramayana over mahabharatha) These stories are narrated and the sage consoles her saying that she is not the only one who is suffering and there are these ladies who have suffered but come out of it vicotrious.
Now Draupadi learns to bade her time and sorts of settles into a forest life. we see,Aarjuna being tested by Lord Siva appearing as a uncouth tribal and Arjuna is forced to fight with him and after the fight reveals himself as S iva and gives him the pasupathaastra.
Arjuna goes to help Indra in some wars to deva loka and comes back with lot of weapons. so this becomes a sort of a preparation for the future war with the kauravas. Arjuna gets a curse also by Oorvasi which becomes, a blessing in disguise (pun intended) when he can use the curse to become 'brihannala' the 'ali' while hiding in agnatha vasa in Virata's palace.
We see our Panchali in a good mood too when she asks Bheema to go and fetch her the lovely flower 'sougandhika' which gives a nice smell. he goes in search of it and meets Hanuman and without knowing who he was is snubbed for his super ego and brings back the flower. I have been trying to identify the mythological sougandhika puspa.
Again after the vana vasa when all of them decide to go to Virata nagara for their agnata vasa 'incognito'life, we see Draupadi entering the services of Sudarsana the queen . Here I remember my grand mother telling me how she had to control her laughter when uncultured Sudarsana did not know how to use the lovely ornaments and put on, what ever has to be put in ears, in the nose and the hand thing in the head and so on and so forth. the way in which my grand ma used to tell it used to evoke laughter.
Here again Draupadi gets into trouble. the evil brother of Sudarsana, Keechaka troubles her. she takes the help of Bheema. she asks Keechaka to come to a spot, but there Bheema is waiting for him covering himself with a ladies garb and kills Keechaka.
Panchali is instrumental in sending Bruhanala as the charioteer for the cowaard and boastful prince Uttara kumara as kauravas having guessed that pandavas are hiding here comes to attack the Virata nagara.
By then the stipulated 12 months are over and the pandavas are free once again to come to the open, and the story moves on.
It is entirely a different point altogether, that many say that Panchali is the root casue of the whole Mahabharatha yuddha as she laughed at Duryodhana when he comes to visit the palace built by maya and falls down as he can not distinguish between water and the shining floor.
But she sure had the boldness to say and do what she wanted and took a great revenge on those who caused her great injustice.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Monday, September 19, 2005
Sundara Kandam
I have been reciting Sundara kandam for the past few years. Sundara kandam is a part of Valmiki Ramayana which is a kavya or a poem which is divided into kandas or chapters. This I have seen my grand father chanting as a way of prayer.
This is normally recited as a way of asking for support for fulfilment of some goal or desire. This I do in eight day basis. After reciting for so long I have come to certain conclusions.
First and Foremost it is a sort of a meditation. It is like reading a Self Motivating book. I will give you the reasons why I think like that.
This kanda is basically called as sundara meaning beauty is because as a poem it has the most beautiful description of nature and beauty in the great buildings found in lanka by Hanuman. It is also where there is a great turning point for the story of ramayana when Hanuman is able to find Seeta .
First I read this in tamil translation and I now read in sanskrit original. Even though I don't understand word by word I can make out so well the gist of each stanza.
It is amazing how relevant it is to our lives.
When hanuman is not that confident himself of crossing the seas he is helped by his aides and friends who encourage him saying he has the capacity to do it and by sheer belief of those around him he is able to achieve the great feat of crossing the great samudra.
Next when he is searching for seeta when he does not find her he is so dejected that he feels that he is not going to find her and if he returns without finding her he will be the root cause of sorrow for the whole of Rama's clan as well as the monkey clan . so he decides that he will just while away his time in lanka wandering or just sit in the samudra teera or beach. That is he is almost at the point of giving up. Then he prays to Rama and decides he will give one more try and to see some more place and happens to look at asoka vana where he eventually sees seeta.
Our heart goes out to the sufferings of the fragile seeta surrounded by demonic women and how the demon king Ravana comes and talks to her. she replies to him thro a grass stick symbolic that she treats the demon king as just a grass with tears flowing and she is so strong and bold and tells him great Rama will come and rescue her and kill ravana. At that point we feel our sorrows are so little compared to the helpless lady and indirectly we feel our problems also will be solved .
The way in which hanuman wonders how to introduce himself to seeta is very interesting to note. He wonders that if he goes and stands next to her in his monkey form and talks to her in the human tounge she might be scared and shout and wake up all the demons raksahasis and the whole prupose will be lost. So beautifully he starts reciting Rama katha that is the story of Rama in a small voice so that Seeta could hear it. What a great idea to gain her confidence.
She in turn though wants to belive him fully tests him by asking him to give the description of Rama and also to show her how with such a smalll form as a small monkey he crossed the seas. That is when hanuman describes Rama and Lakshmana and also shows her the big form he took to cross the seas.
When Hanuman tells seeta that he will take her on his back to Rama so that all her sorrow will be over, Sita wisely tells him that only Rama can come and defeat Ravana straight and then take her back and tells him the many flaws in his plan. Though he wonders how being a lady she is so wise (this we should accept as those days the society was different) This is where we learn that we should not be impatient to achieve the goal and take short cuts and wait for the ripe time and proper way for the work to be done.
After meeting with Seeta, Hanuman wants to see Ravana so that he can report back to Rama the strengh of the enemy, starts destroying the beautiful asoka vana and infroms one and all he is Rama dhootha messanger from R ama who has come to see Ravana. fFnally after killing many a warriors and one of the sons of Ravana he is captured by Indrajith the famous son of Ravana. Here also he converts his punishement that is the fire lit in his tail to destroy the buildings in lanka . We sympathise with him for we understand his rage agaist Ravana for kidnappng Seeta and keeping her against her wishes.
Again our great hero gets worried, that due to his rage which destroyed his proper thinking , that he inadvertantly harmed Seeta and she might have been killed by the fire he started. So he goes back and makes sure she is alive. It is heartening to note that the small details are so nicely taken care of.
He returns to the danda karanya where his friends await him. All of them are so happy and rejoice the news of finding Seeta by destroyng a 'madhuvana' that is a great fruit and honey orchard maintained by an assistant to Sugreeva who tries to stop them and is hit by Angadha. I always wonder what the reaction of Sugreeva will be as the vana is his most precious and favourite one , but once he hears about the destrucion through the assistant he understands that Seeta has been found as he tells Laksmana that unless Seeta was found Angadha would not dare destroying the lovely madhuvana. What lovely understanding of the human nature. (I always feel that the so called monkeys in Ramayana or monkey like people ( nara is human beings ) who might have looked like monkeys and with a different culture) and the dealing of the situation
After completing the sundara kanda we are to recite the slokas of the pattabiseka that is coronation ceremony Rama ascending the throne with Seeta surrounded by his brothers relatives and friends.
The happy ending gives us a feelig that all our problems also will be solved and we have a happy solution to the problems. (may be till the next problem arises)
The point is that the recitation is for spiritual experience and also for self motivation. Now I understand why my grand father read. In certain situations where you can not act as it is not your problem and it is the probelm of your loved ones where they have to act . Instead of just worrying feeling helpless and to make us feel that we have also contriburted in solving in a postive way the recital of sundara kanda is a great help to me.
I have started doing it in a regular basis not for specific problems just to boost my morale.
This is normally recited as a way of asking for support for fulfilment of some goal or desire. This I do in eight day basis. After reciting for so long I have come to certain conclusions.
First and Foremost it is a sort of a meditation. It is like reading a Self Motivating book. I will give you the reasons why I think like that.
This kanda is basically called as sundara meaning beauty is because as a poem it has the most beautiful description of nature and beauty in the great buildings found in lanka by Hanuman. It is also where there is a great turning point for the story of ramayana when Hanuman is able to find Seeta .
First I read this in tamil translation and I now read in sanskrit original. Even though I don't understand word by word I can make out so well the gist of each stanza.
It is amazing how relevant it is to our lives.
When hanuman is not that confident himself of crossing the seas he is helped by his aides and friends who encourage him saying he has the capacity to do it and by sheer belief of those around him he is able to achieve the great feat of crossing the great samudra.
Next when he is searching for seeta when he does not find her he is so dejected that he feels that he is not going to find her and if he returns without finding her he will be the root cause of sorrow for the whole of Rama's clan as well as the monkey clan . so he decides that he will just while away his time in lanka wandering or just sit in the samudra teera or beach. That is he is almost at the point of giving up. Then he prays to Rama and decides he will give one more try and to see some more place and happens to look at asoka vana where he eventually sees seeta.
Our heart goes out to the sufferings of the fragile seeta surrounded by demonic women and how the demon king Ravana comes and talks to her. she replies to him thro a grass stick symbolic that she treats the demon king as just a grass with tears flowing and she is so strong and bold and tells him great Rama will come and rescue her and kill ravana. At that point we feel our sorrows are so little compared to the helpless lady and indirectly we feel our problems also will be solved .
The way in which hanuman wonders how to introduce himself to seeta is very interesting to note. He wonders that if he goes and stands next to her in his monkey form and talks to her in the human tounge she might be scared and shout and wake up all the demons raksahasis and the whole prupose will be lost. So beautifully he starts reciting Rama katha that is the story of Rama in a small voice so that Seeta could hear it. What a great idea to gain her confidence.
She in turn though wants to belive him fully tests him by asking him to give the description of Rama and also to show her how with such a smalll form as a small monkey he crossed the seas. That is when hanuman describes Rama and Lakshmana and also shows her the big form he took to cross the seas.
When Hanuman tells seeta that he will take her on his back to Rama so that all her sorrow will be over, Sita wisely tells him that only Rama can come and defeat Ravana straight and then take her back and tells him the many flaws in his plan. Though he wonders how being a lady she is so wise (this we should accept as those days the society was different) This is where we learn that we should not be impatient to achieve the goal and take short cuts and wait for the ripe time and proper way for the work to be done.
After meeting with Seeta, Hanuman wants to see Ravana so that he can report back to Rama the strengh of the enemy, starts destroying the beautiful asoka vana and infroms one and all he is Rama dhootha messanger from R ama who has come to see Ravana. fFnally after killing many a warriors and one of the sons of Ravana he is captured by Indrajith the famous son of Ravana. Here also he converts his punishement that is the fire lit in his tail to destroy the buildings in lanka . We sympathise with him for we understand his rage agaist Ravana for kidnappng Seeta and keeping her against her wishes.
Again our great hero gets worried, that due to his rage which destroyed his proper thinking , that he inadvertantly harmed Seeta and she might have been killed by the fire he started. So he goes back and makes sure she is alive. It is heartening to note that the small details are so nicely taken care of.
He returns to the danda karanya where his friends await him. All of them are so happy and rejoice the news of finding Seeta by destroyng a 'madhuvana' that is a great fruit and honey orchard maintained by an assistant to Sugreeva who tries to stop them and is hit by Angadha. I always wonder what the reaction of Sugreeva will be as the vana is his most precious and favourite one , but once he hears about the destrucion through the assistant he understands that Seeta has been found as he tells Laksmana that unless Seeta was found Angadha would not dare destroying the lovely madhuvana. What lovely understanding of the human nature. (I always feel that the so called monkeys in Ramayana or monkey like people ( nara is human beings ) who might have looked like monkeys and with a different culture) and the dealing of the situation
After completing the sundara kanda we are to recite the slokas of the pattabiseka that is coronation ceremony Rama ascending the throne with Seeta surrounded by his brothers relatives and friends.
The happy ending gives us a feelig that all our problems also will be solved and we have a happy solution to the problems. (may be till the next problem arises)
The point is that the recitation is for spiritual experience and also for self motivation. Now I understand why my grand father read. In certain situations where you can not act as it is not your problem and it is the probelm of your loved ones where they have to act . Instead of just worrying feeling helpless and to make us feel that we have also contriburted in solving in a postive way the recital of sundara kanda is a great help to me.
I have started doing it in a regular basis not for specific problems just to boost my morale.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Nature
As a very young girl I used to always think about which is the most productive profession/career which has tangible, physical results which can be seen and felt . I used to think of so many things and always used to come to the conclusion that growing plants is the best profession which can be really called productive.
I always used to be fascinated by small new leaves that grow on any plant. It used to be so lovely to see new leaves growing out of plants when I used to come out of the house in the morning to the garden to pluck the flowers to be used for the pooja by my mom or for us to put it on our plaits after tying it into a small strand of flowers. (Come to think of it, it must have been such a Sight to see us wearing some blue or pink flowers which we used to call as ' spatica')
Those were the days much before the talk of green house effect, and ozone layer and all those jargons. It used to be a laid back life though not in a small town but in a town growing into a big city! yeah it was Bangalore of fifties and sixities when it was called a Pensioner's paradise.
Not knowing anything scientifically about gardening all our spare time (we had lot of spare time as we did not have much home work though we had the general tuition and music classes) was spent in the garden . We used to dig with gusto to plant some seeds or some saplings which we brought over from friend's place. while digging the sundry stones which were picked up used to be kept separately as trophies! All sorts of plants used to be planted, some survived, some died and it was all part of growing up of plants as well as we kids.
Some body asked me once when I was a kid just like that, which animal I would rear if it is made compulsory by the Govt. that each individual should rear an animal. pat came my reply. Cow. Probabaly he was expecting me to say a dog or a cat so he was surprised and asked me why. I said because cow dung is a good manure for my garden, as I had heard some body telling that to my mom who was asking them for suggestion to improve her rose plants. How he roared with laughter.
We had a game among ourselves in the near by open ground which had lots of wild plants. Come to think of it, it was a sort of a botanical game cum memory game which we never realized then. We used to split into two groups and one group will pick leaves from the plants around and arrange it on a rock. The other group has to see it for a few minutes memorize it and then pick up the same leaves from around the wild plants. How I loved that game and how I wish I had some botanist telling me the names of those plants. Even now I can recognize some of those wild plants in some obscure places but still I don't know the botanical names as I never studied botony as a subject.
The thought process was continuous and I sort of concluded that the real productive profession is to grow any useful plant and I always thought Rice/Paddy was the most useful plant as we were rice eaters.
When I sit and look back I realize though, simple and silly how right the mind/thought of that little girl was about growing any thing is productive.
Each one of us should grow a little plant in the space available. This way certain extent the green can be increased in and around us.
I see a lot of place wasted in the flats where maintainance is not very good. common areas are wasted as it is no body's property and no body wants to take the trouble of watering even if some one plants some kind of plant. Even if we live in an araprtment having just a little tulasi plant in the window sill will contribute to nature . It is going to give us such a sweet feeling to watch each new leaf grow.
I always used to be fascinated by small new leaves that grow on any plant. It used to be so lovely to see new leaves growing out of plants when I used to come out of the house in the morning to the garden to pluck the flowers to be used for the pooja by my mom or for us to put it on our plaits after tying it into a small strand of flowers. (Come to think of it, it must have been such a Sight to see us wearing some blue or pink flowers which we used to call as ' spatica')
Those were the days much before the talk of green house effect, and ozone layer and all those jargons. It used to be a laid back life though not in a small town but in a town growing into a big city! yeah it was Bangalore of fifties and sixities when it was called a Pensioner's paradise.
Not knowing anything scientifically about gardening all our spare time (we had lot of spare time as we did not have much home work though we had the general tuition and music classes) was spent in the garden . We used to dig with gusto to plant some seeds or some saplings which we brought over from friend's place. while digging the sundry stones which were picked up used to be kept separately as trophies! All sorts of plants used to be planted, some survived, some died and it was all part of growing up of plants as well as we kids.
Some body asked me once when I was a kid just like that, which animal I would rear if it is made compulsory by the Govt. that each individual should rear an animal. pat came my reply. Cow. Probabaly he was expecting me to say a dog or a cat so he was surprised and asked me why. I said because cow dung is a good manure for my garden, as I had heard some body telling that to my mom who was asking them for suggestion to improve her rose plants. How he roared with laughter.
We had a game among ourselves in the near by open ground which had lots of wild plants. Come to think of it, it was a sort of a botanical game cum memory game which we never realized then. We used to split into two groups and one group will pick leaves from the plants around and arrange it on a rock. The other group has to see it for a few minutes memorize it and then pick up the same leaves from around the wild plants. How I loved that game and how I wish I had some botanist telling me the names of those plants. Even now I can recognize some of those wild plants in some obscure places but still I don't know the botanical names as I never studied botony as a subject.
The thought process was continuous and I sort of concluded that the real productive profession is to grow any useful plant and I always thought Rice/Paddy was the most useful plant as we were rice eaters.
When I sit and look back I realize though, simple and silly how right the mind/thought of that little girl was about growing any thing is productive.
Each one of us should grow a little plant in the space available. This way certain extent the green can be increased in and around us.
I see a lot of place wasted in the flats where maintainance is not very good. common areas are wasted as it is no body's property and no body wants to take the trouble of watering even if some one plants some kind of plant. Even if we live in an araprtment having just a little tulasi plant in the window sill will contribute to nature . It is going to give us such a sweet feeling to watch each new leaf grow.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Bane of India
The severe problem which Indian Metro Cities are facing today is the lack of infrastructure. For any city to improve it needs the ROADS, the proper ones. When a city has expanded and people have need to travel from one part to another they need to do it fast as time is money.
If you consider Western countries, Europe started rebuilding itself after the collasal destruction of world war II. Germany became the forerunner in building high ways. As many places in Europe had lot of destruction, while rebuilding they gave importance to road and then built new buildings around the roads.
North America is a very young country. When the motor car manufacture exploded in volume in the 1950s the business man Ford and the then President Eisenhower had the vision to understand, that the people will need the roads to use these cars. They understood they wll buy these cars only if they have proper roads to travel in it. The beautiful highways were born across the country and grew along with the cities. Till today travelling by road is the cheapest way of transportation in these parts, compared to even trains.
Asian countries also have woken up to the reality and we see countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, China giving importance to road building. From 1990s onwards there is a tremendous impetus in road building.
In the last few years it is amazing to see how China which is also very densly populated country like ours, having built such lovely four lane highways and broad roads within the big cities.
In India cars are beng manufactured and introduced in the market, in such huge volumes. Anything like this has not been seen in the recent past. But alas, where will these cars run. It is a night mare to travel by car in big cities like say Bangalore. Cars which are capable of running at high speeds pathetically move inch by inch in the innumerable circles, and small lanes , where drivers don't have an idea as to what is right of way. What a waste of time and energy. I wonder, there may be a day in the near future when the city will come to a stand still with all roads blocked by cars.
Where lies the solution. The beaurocrats and politicians who visit other countries , never learn anything . They are content with sight seeing.
The solution can be found in Thailand's Bangkok model. Bangkok is also a very thickly populted city. They have built road above the existing ones.
So just build roads above the existing roads. Go vertically up. I could see in some places in Bangkok three or four tiers of roads . But the people who want to travel have to pay a fee. Elevated highways are tolled and the speed limit is around 110 kms. These elevated roads run from one city to another with lot of exits in between. This way traffic can be eased and with the toll money collected the high ways can be maintained and fresh roads built.
One more way of raising the capital to build roads is to make the car manufacturer pay part of the taxes towards road building and using the money only for that purpose and not diverting the money to some thing else which our politicans and beaurocrats do all the time.
Every inch of road has to be manned and maintained and whole road transport should come under one ministry. The people who are in charge should be made responsible for the condition of the roads. Like Railways there can be two different sets, one maintainance and one construction. There can be different departments within the roadways people who are responsible for the electricity, telecom and water and sewage systems which are interconnected with the roads. They can co ordinate with the other departments and see to it that roads are not spoiled by indiscriminate digging, and see to it that the digging is properly closed after the work. They can over see, the diggings and laying of all the pipes is done before the construction of the road. So that there will not be any indiscriminate digging every now and then.
There should be different levels in the road transport department who have to repeatedly inspect the roads physically and repair any damages real fast. Traffic police can also come under this department like railway police and paid decent salaries so that they will be able to work with dignity and help the road users to follow the rules.
If you consider Western countries, Europe started rebuilding itself after the collasal destruction of world war II. Germany became the forerunner in building high ways. As many places in Europe had lot of destruction, while rebuilding they gave importance to road and then built new buildings around the roads.
North America is a very young country. When the motor car manufacture exploded in volume in the 1950s the business man Ford and the then President Eisenhower had the vision to understand, that the people will need the roads to use these cars. They understood they wll buy these cars only if they have proper roads to travel in it. The beautiful highways were born across the country and grew along with the cities. Till today travelling by road is the cheapest way of transportation in these parts, compared to even trains.
Asian countries also have woken up to the reality and we see countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, China giving importance to road building. From 1990s onwards there is a tremendous impetus in road building.
In the last few years it is amazing to see how China which is also very densly populated country like ours, having built such lovely four lane highways and broad roads within the big cities.
In India cars are beng manufactured and introduced in the market, in such huge volumes. Anything like this has not been seen in the recent past. But alas, where will these cars run. It is a night mare to travel by car in big cities like say Bangalore. Cars which are capable of running at high speeds pathetically move inch by inch in the innumerable circles, and small lanes , where drivers don't have an idea as to what is right of way. What a waste of time and energy. I wonder, there may be a day in the near future when the city will come to a stand still with all roads blocked by cars.
Where lies the solution. The beaurocrats and politicians who visit other countries , never learn anything . They are content with sight seeing.
The solution can be found in Thailand's Bangkok model. Bangkok is also a very thickly populted city. They have built road above the existing ones.
So just build roads above the existing roads. Go vertically up. I could see in some places in Bangkok three or four tiers of roads . But the people who want to travel have to pay a fee. Elevated highways are tolled and the speed limit is around 110 kms. These elevated roads run from one city to another with lot of exits in between. This way traffic can be eased and with the toll money collected the high ways can be maintained and fresh roads built.
One more way of raising the capital to build roads is to make the car manufacturer pay part of the taxes towards road building and using the money only for that purpose and not diverting the money to some thing else which our politicans and beaurocrats do all the time.
Every inch of road has to be manned and maintained and whole road transport should come under one ministry. The people who are in charge should be made responsible for the condition of the roads. Like Railways there can be two different sets, one maintainance and one construction. There can be different departments within the roadways people who are responsible for the electricity, telecom and water and sewage systems which are interconnected with the roads. They can co ordinate with the other departments and see to it that roads are not spoiled by indiscriminate digging, and see to it that the digging is properly closed after the work. They can over see, the diggings and laying of all the pipes is done before the construction of the road. So that there will not be any indiscriminate digging every now and then.
There should be different levels in the road transport department who have to repeatedly inspect the roads physically and repair any damages real fast. Traffic police can also come under this department like railway police and paid decent salaries so that they will be able to work with dignity and help the road users to follow the rules.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Katrina
Being in America now I am seeing day in and day out the news about the calamity which the hurricane Katrina has caused. Katrina which hit the gulf of mexico, which has affected very severey the beautiful city of New Orleans, in Lousiana and also some towns in the neighbouring State of Missisippi.
Thanks to the media, world wide, every body is able to see what is happening. I am really surprised to see that they are not able to cope up with the situation even after a week. Intially no body understood that the levees had broken.( I think levee is a kind of man made barricade to stop the missisippi flood water entering the low lying city of New Orleans. The city became a low lying city (below sea level) over the past 50 years due to the very levee system introduced to stop the annual flooding. The floods would have brought the soil along with it and the land level would not have gone down) The city was affected more because of the broken levees rather than the strom itself which had not hit this city directly but had gone and hit a place in the neighbouring missisippi state. This kind of lack of communication , delayed action in the high tech telcom days, is really apalling. The lootings, the water logged city, the helplessness, and the seemingly racist clippings they show on tv (showing again and again the lootings by blacks) and the blaming games by politicians and no body to take responsibility, the administrative mechanism crumbling down are all so damaging to the Image of America.
This shows how poor these people are in crisis management.
I always have a theory that We back home are not good at normal situation but we are all very good at 'crisis management' . May be we are so used to something going wrong, we all the time without our conscious knowledge, keep waiting for something to go wrong and are mentally more prepared at crisis management. This I could see in the airports here when I arrived that the security checks were taking so long with big queue at the airport, and we almost missed our connecting flight. Back home with more crowds our people work faster.
Coming back to Katrina, intially, on the first day of reporting in the national tv news I almost laughed when the reporting was like , there is no power for the past few hours in such and such a place, and one of the transformer broke and things like that. I imagined that if we were to report about the power failures and the broken transformers all the news papers in the world will not have space to write about any thing else. It was too silly compared to the enormity of the situation.
One more report showed some people worried about the cemetry where the tombs were affected and some body saying poor people loosing some loved one's tombs. It was so unrealsitic , when there were thousands of people who had left home and moved to other places, and several thousands huddled in a foot ball ground , to report about some water logged cemetry.
But all these changed within two days when the actual scale of calamity seeped in and people started comparing this hurricane to tsunami.
Amidst all this when people started saying in the media they felt as if they are in some 'third world country' it sounded really outrageous to me. They who have not moved from their places even to other parts of their own country using the jargon 'third world country' as if it is a dirty word made me so angry.
It is more comical to see the president issuing some stupid statements and doing helicopter survey very much like our own politicians. Poor people they deserve a better president!
Looks like it will take lot more time for the normalcy to return and it is a way of Nature showing us how mighty it is and how nature is laughing at us for trying to meddle with her.
Thanks to the media, world wide, every body is able to see what is happening. I am really surprised to see that they are not able to cope up with the situation even after a week. Intially no body understood that the levees had broken.( I think levee is a kind of man made barricade to stop the missisippi flood water entering the low lying city of New Orleans. The city became a low lying city (below sea level) over the past 50 years due to the very levee system introduced to stop the annual flooding. The floods would have brought the soil along with it and the land level would not have gone down) The city was affected more because of the broken levees rather than the strom itself which had not hit this city directly but had gone and hit a place in the neighbouring missisippi state. This kind of lack of communication , delayed action in the high tech telcom days, is really apalling. The lootings, the water logged city, the helplessness, and the seemingly racist clippings they show on tv (showing again and again the lootings by blacks) and the blaming games by politicians and no body to take responsibility, the administrative mechanism crumbling down are all so damaging to the Image of America.
This shows how poor these people are in crisis management.
I always have a theory that We back home are not good at normal situation but we are all very good at 'crisis management' . May be we are so used to something going wrong, we all the time without our conscious knowledge, keep waiting for something to go wrong and are mentally more prepared at crisis management. This I could see in the airports here when I arrived that the security checks were taking so long with big queue at the airport, and we almost missed our connecting flight. Back home with more crowds our people work faster.
Coming back to Katrina, intially, on the first day of reporting in the national tv news I almost laughed when the reporting was like , there is no power for the past few hours in such and such a place, and one of the transformer broke and things like that. I imagined that if we were to report about the power failures and the broken transformers all the news papers in the world will not have space to write about any thing else. It was too silly compared to the enormity of the situation.
One more report showed some people worried about the cemetry where the tombs were affected and some body saying poor people loosing some loved one's tombs. It was so unrealsitic , when there were thousands of people who had left home and moved to other places, and several thousands huddled in a foot ball ground , to report about some water logged cemetry.
But all these changed within two days when the actual scale of calamity seeped in and people started comparing this hurricane to tsunami.
Amidst all this when people started saying in the media they felt as if they are in some 'third world country' it sounded really outrageous to me. They who have not moved from their places even to other parts of their own country using the jargon 'third world country' as if it is a dirty word made me so angry.
It is more comical to see the president issuing some stupid statements and doing helicopter survey very much like our own politicians. Poor people they deserve a better president!
Looks like it will take lot more time for the normalcy to return and it is a way of Nature showing us how mighty it is and how nature is laughing at us for trying to meddle with her.
Random thoughts
Well, these are some things I had penned while in K.L. I thought now I can blog it. I am just reproducing what ever I wrote down.
Well, what should I write about, this Life which is a beautiful gift given to us by who ever it is God, Nature, what ever!
God!! Yes I am happy to believe in God. I am sure all those prayers (read slokas and poojas) help ME rather than pleasing God. I am sure being ALMIGHTY, He would not be bothered about whether some body praises Him or Not, Whether some body is thinking about Him or not, as long as they are humane. (as I understand it) He must be doing what ever it is which is unknown to me and beyond me.
So I have come to the conclusion that I pray for my sake and do it all the time to get Strength. Mental Strength. I am in such a stage in my life , I can not run to my elders for all my little problems. Mom and Dad were there for me all the time listening to all my silly bickerings about this or that. I have realized now, that God has replaced them.
So when I pray or recite the slokas it is a way of telling my problems to a neutral entity. With any other person I share my inner thoughts, it has repurcussions. We always tend to forget what we said, but the listening ears, carry those tales far and wide, so when the same thing comes back to us it is so distorted that always makes you wonder whether we were the one who said it in the first place. I will not have such backlash with what I call God.
I have a strong notion that if I pass on the problems by way of prayers it will definitely get solved. It does because of the strong belief, I am able to think postitively and the solutions start unfolding for the problems. I believe strongly that there is one more person (can I say that) with me I have the feeling I am not alone and the depression that try to creep in vainishes in a jiffy.
Of course all this prayers what ever takes hardly half an hour a day and that too it is so flexible that if I miss out on the slokas for a day I don't have any guilty feelings as I am sure that God does not punish me for such things. As long as I don't harm (like my husband always likes to says in tamil 'manasale kooda yarukkum keduthal nenaikka kudathu' ) any body by my words or deed, I think it is perfectly OK.
I like this flexibility especially in the way I practice it,( hinduism to be specific), I feel it is like Democracy, Freedom. As long as my nose does n't touch my neighbours that kind of freedom.
This belief in God and the way of life, is very very personal . I don't force others to believe in my way or I am not very particular to join a community prayer. Even my prayers are not said very loudly . This is completely individualistic.
I do like to go to temples and other places of worship as it does give the solace and calmness which I require, again the visits to these temple are at my terms and not regimented.
So I try to live life taking one day at a time and try to live it to the fullest with the support from my beliefs. This helps me to lead a life with a level headed ness. When the going is tough I always tell myself 'tomorrow is another day' ala 'Scarlet Ohara ' of Gone with the Wind
Well, what should I write about, this Life which is a beautiful gift given to us by who ever it is God, Nature, what ever!
God!! Yes I am happy to believe in God. I am sure all those prayers (read slokas and poojas) help ME rather than pleasing God. I am sure being ALMIGHTY, He would not be bothered about whether some body praises Him or Not, Whether some body is thinking about Him or not, as long as they are humane. (as I understand it) He must be doing what ever it is which is unknown to me and beyond me.
So I have come to the conclusion that I pray for my sake and do it all the time to get Strength. Mental Strength. I am in such a stage in my life , I can not run to my elders for all my little problems. Mom and Dad were there for me all the time listening to all my silly bickerings about this or that. I have realized now, that God has replaced them.
So when I pray or recite the slokas it is a way of telling my problems to a neutral entity. With any other person I share my inner thoughts, it has repurcussions. We always tend to forget what we said, but the listening ears, carry those tales far and wide, so when the same thing comes back to us it is so distorted that always makes you wonder whether we were the one who said it in the first place. I will not have such backlash with what I call God.
I have a strong notion that if I pass on the problems by way of prayers it will definitely get solved. It does because of the strong belief, I am able to think postitively and the solutions start unfolding for the problems. I believe strongly that there is one more person (can I say that) with me I have the feeling I am not alone and the depression that try to creep in vainishes in a jiffy.
Of course all this prayers what ever takes hardly half an hour a day and that too it is so flexible that if I miss out on the slokas for a day I don't have any guilty feelings as I am sure that God does not punish me for such things. As long as I don't harm (like my husband always likes to says in tamil 'manasale kooda yarukkum keduthal nenaikka kudathu' ) any body by my words or deed, I think it is perfectly OK.
I like this flexibility especially in the way I practice it,( hinduism to be specific), I feel it is like Democracy, Freedom. As long as my nose does n't touch my neighbours that kind of freedom.
This belief in God and the way of life, is very very personal . I don't force others to believe in my way or I am not very particular to join a community prayer. Even my prayers are not said very loudly . This is completely individualistic.
I do like to go to temples and other places of worship as it does give the solace and calmness which I require, again the visits to these temple are at my terms and not regimented.
So I try to live life taking one day at a time and try to live it to the fullest with the support from my beliefs. This helps me to lead a life with a level headed ness. When the going is tough I always tell myself 'tomorrow is another day' ala 'Scarlet Ohara ' of Gone with the Wind
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