Games we used to play….

Went back to a different time this time when I was in flight.

The flight entertainment menu consisted of many video and audio options - and one of those was a RK Narayanan episode based on the book ‘Swami and friends’….

Swami, some may recall, was a young student of Albert Mission School, Malgudi…a young boy who hated word problems, and didnt know whether to multiply, divide, add or substract when faced with a problem that went like, say, “Ramu went to market to buy mangoes. One mango cost 8 Rupees. Ramu wanted to buy five…” etc….He was more concerned whether the mango was ripe or not….

The movie clip was an abridged version, and showed just one episode….that of Swami, his Dada classmate Raju, and the other classmate Mani, the son of the local Deputy Superintendent of Police….Lovely picturisation…

One of the scenes I really liked was one that showed Swami pick up a half torn page of ’Malgudi Times’ newspaper from the ground…make a paper boat with it….and let it float down a little stream. He then sees a school of ants, picks up one, and ever so gently places it in the boat…and then suddenly there is a rapid in the stream, and the boat rushes into a deep, and capsizes….And Swami searches high and low for the ant, worries ever so much that it may have died, and mouths a silent prayer….Little Swami, with a vibhooti on his forehead….

Reminded me of the times when kids actually played with paper boats. I could make two types of paper boats, one a plain boat, and the other with a knifelike extension jutting out of the bottom - the better to cut ones way through the waters…..”katthi-boat” (knife boat) it was called….

Simple toys…paper airplanes, rockets….balls made from rubber strips cut out of a discarded rubber tyre-tube of a cycle….

These games still survive….The other day I noticed a gang of kids outside their little slum home, sitting and playing some game with just a pile of stones….It was a real intense game that they played….or that time in Goa, when I saw this kid, running down the road, rolling a tyre, beating it forward with a stick…Simple games….Games that need just basic stuff…Maybe a chalk to draw a board on the ground, some stones, maybe a ball, a used tyre…

I remember a game called seven-six that we used to play….Needs a ball, and a wall….and you can play for hours….

The stick-and-bail game, Gulli-danda, is mentioned in the Mahabharata….

Wonder how many kids nowadays know any of these games….What with electronics, computers and such having taken a stranglehold in the world of games….There ain’t no free games any more….

Snakes and Ladders anybody?

  

Ganga Saptami…

A little fire is quickly trodden out; Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench. -King Henry VI - William Shakespeare

April 23rd…the traditionally accepted birth date of William Shakespeare…and the date of his death too….

Rivers cannot quench little fires that are allowed to grow, says the bard…what about the fires that threaten to burn rivers dry? Who is to quench that?

April 23rd, 2007, happens to be Ganga Saptami…In the Indian calendar, this day is the traditionally accepted date of birth of River Ganga….The great Ganga that is revered by hundreds of millions across India, and indeed shines as the symbol of all rivers of India….a river that has at its banks, the story of civilizations, and towns and cities whose names evoke magic….a river so sacred that millions of people keep little sealed cans of Ganga water in their homes, hoping to have a sip of that just before they die, for they have faith that this will cleanse them of all demerits…

That Ganga, one reads off and on, is in danger of drying up…Usually a small inside page column or two in a newspaper, of some study or the other,  talks of this….

Geological Survey of India, and other agencies, are reported to have found that the Gangotri glacier is receding at an alarming rate, the volume of glacier ice is falling…and this, due to environmental causes that have happened only in the last half century or so….Gangotri, the source of Ganges, one of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas, is in danger of disintegrating, say some reports.

Global warming, rampant deforestation are some of the fires that are burning the river….That Ganges will considerably dry up in the next hundred years or so is distinctly probable, they say….They point out to other Himalayan glaciers that have gone the same way….In the Saraswati valley, the glacier Ratakona is on the verge of drying up…The Pindari and Milan glaciers are also receding….

But then the story of rivers drying up is not something new in India, is it? Every time one passes the Paalaar river in Tamil Nad, one sees massive stretches of dry river bed…and the wonder is that the river bed is so broad…which was soon explained when one came to know that Paalaar was a perennial river, and dried up only in the last hundred years….now, sewages and industrial waste effluents try to keep some flow going in the lower end….the majestic river, that once upon a time flowed into the ocean at Mamallapuram. has only its bones to show….and even that bone dry river bed, is being ravished by sand quarrying…

Should we worry that Ganga too would go that way?

Or is it that in the cause of industrial progress, all this cry is “Much ado about nothing”?

Akshaya Triteeya…the Gold call…

Got a mail from my bank that they are having special ’sale’ of Gold coins on ‘Akshaya Triteeya’ day. All ’swiss certified’ etc….

My bank is not an exception…almost all banks seem to be having Akshaya Triteeya ‘Gold’ sales….Looks like, on this day, banks take a break from day-books/vouchers/ scrolls/ledgers / cash dispensing and such other mundane activities, and become shops of Gold.

Banks, Jewelry shops….Pick up any newspaper…See the huge hoardings in the city skyline….talk to anybody….there is but one Mantra…Buy ‘Gold’…

Almost makes one feel that one would be committing a folly, if not outright sin, by not buying the yellow metal on this day…Great market making, and it works! Sales goes through the roof, one reads…

Gold apart, what is Akshaya Triteeya?

Akshay Thriteeya, the third day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Vaisakha,  is considered a great day for starting anything…

It marks the commencement of Satya (a.k.a Krita) and Treta Yuga…

The day is considered sacred to Lord Vishnu.

The Badrinatha temple, that is kept closed for six months of winter, is reopened today.

Today Brindavan will be super-crowded…..the feet of Banke Bihari idol is displayed only on this day (kept covered rest of the year)…in most Vishnu temples, there will be chandana alankara….

In Simhacalam (a great Narsimha temple…Vizag, AP) the Varaha-Narsimha is so ugra that the idol is kept covered with layers of Chandanam throughout the year. On Akshaya Tritheeya alone, the chandana coverings are removed…function starts at 2 am….People can see the bare vigraha from morning till evening this day…then it is covered with chandanam again for the rest of the year….there is a great rush this day…

In Udupi Sri Krishna temple, worship is offered to Akshaya Patra today…that is the vessel of inexhaustible food that Draupadi used during forest exile of Pandavas in Mahabharata…

This day also is the birthday of the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu - Parasurama….

So net-net: The belief is that it is a day of good-beginnings…Start a project…join a new job….do griha pravesam…do upanayanams…etc etc…Offer chandana abhisheka to Salagrama or idols of Vishnu….Do Daan(am)s….

As regards Gold….I guess the idea is that gold signifies Maha Lakshmi…and so to please Lord Vishnu, you bring Lakshmi home….

But then Srimad Bhagavata says that Gold is also the abode of Kali Purusa - the tormenting personification of Kali Yuga….So Gold cuts both ways….

But Marketing, after all, has made Trivikrama strides in Kali Yuga …So, riding on Kali, they have all the universe covered…

And so, like Mahabali, best is that you kneel, and let them step on your head and purse, and make you buy Gold!
 

Passing on…

Sri Subbudu….

Respected, feared, Music and Dance critic….Todays Hindu has an obit notice….He has passed away….

I have seen him on occasion….My folks were associated with Delhi Shanmukananda Sangeeta Sabha, and I have had the joy of attending many music concerts, many, many moons ago….Have heard Balamurali Krishna when he was making his first forays into public…..and I remember this….Subbudu’s criticisms would be awaited….and read….I was too young to read art pieces, but I am told that he packed deadly humour….and usually a sting as well….(which, I read somewhere, he attributed to his Scorpio - vricchika raaashi)…..It should be said that he brought the art of “critic” to a new level….Oh, it must have been hard for the artistes who had to suffer his barbs….but then life on the stage always has a price….

May he live in peace in heaven….and write some sharp pieces on Narada, Tumburu, Urvashi and others, ask searching questions about celestial appreciation of dance and music….

For if someone can take on God, Subbudu can….