INDIA! KNOW THYSELF!!

INDIA! KNOW THYSELF!!

BY

S. MAHESHKUMAR

IT is ridiculous to forget China’s internal rifts and plot against India’s disintegration into its regional parts as the Chinese strategist Zhan Lue revealed his reveries in his recent article published in the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies! China is the biggest shame of the world for its horrendous affliction to non-democratic communist regime. There are numerous biases and immoralities in the Chinese way at things. Right from selling cheap things to cheating others, China wants to establish itself as an untamed Asiatic demon due to its several incurable ailments.

From Bharatha Kanda to Bharath, India has seen drastic changes. Its geographical sketch was often subjected to enlargement and contraction. It encompassed several countries in the ancient times as against the present 28 states and 7 union territories. India is the temple of the world mainly because of its association with spiritualities of every possible kind. To stay neutral to all modes of worship, India remains secular. Guarded atop by the mighty Himalayas, India has at its peninsular precincts the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Like a University of wisdom that imparts education of all subjects with its respective departments, India has many languages, cultures, practices,… encapsulated in it for the peaceful coexistence.

Pakistan is artificial as it is like Banyan’s prodigal son. By the influence of the mischievous miscreants, it got separated on the basis of Islam. It still continues to suffer from its initial biases and yields to further exploitation by America, China and others excepting India. Sri Lanka is amputated geographically and hewed politically by the British from India. By its association with China and Pakistan, Sri Lanka also got afflicted with their chronic diseases, all three paving their ways to self destruction in the guise of conniving against India. China is terribly expecting an internal revolution by the suppressed people of China at any time. Pakistan has fallen prey to native and nearby terrorists by sponsoring terrorism against India. Sri Lanka has been sinning with the Sinhalese government’s genocidal attacks against its native Tamils thus accumulating the inescapable curses of the victims at large. These three awaits a fitting end to their deadly deeds as their peccadilloes ripen.

India had been looted by Alexander prior to the Mohammedan invaders culminating in the majestic booty by the British. All these plunderers were able to snatch away India’s material wealth only but not its spiritual treasures which are always the driving forces of India. Apart from India, the world relies for its spiritual pursuits on say, a Zoroaster, a Buddha, a Christ, a Mohammad, et al. India continues to abound such enlightened shamans for ages and eternally reverberate with the perfect divinity at its crux. However ruthless the material combats may be, India’s spirituality will guard itself ubiquitously!

The concept of democracy is deteriorating like never before in India. Most Politicians in India have developed rhino skins and roam about with rotten selves. The greatest threat to India is never from its neighbouring countries; it is always from within, by these political turncoats, who exercise the hard-earned freedom to corrupt and ransack the country; by the tax evading tycoons; culprits who cruelly do business in life saving medical profession; fake drug sellers; scoundrels who commercialise education; the leeches from the entertainment industry who suck people’s time, money and energy; malfunctioning administrators and so on.

We have been forced to live with terrorism. Never again after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US did a similar assault take place! The US had learnt the necessary lessons and reorganised its border security, established essential defence strategies to tackle such threats and started raging war against terrorists with the exception of Iraq. There is no good in blindly hailing the US in all cases but as far as their internal security is concerned, it is shaping up appreciably after the 9/11 terrible blow.

The negligence of agriculture, delaying the inter-linking of all rivers within the country, shortage of electricity, mounting price rise of essential commodities, etc., cause the nation further damage these days. Presenting deficit budgets, privatisation of prosperous public sector companies, not re-constituting the Constitution akin to India, menace of growing population and unemployment, using the Central Bureau of Investigation like a puppet in the hands of the ruling parties, Election Commission of India becoming putrid and incapable, all these and many more let others such as US and China, devise elaborate schemes to ruin India.

Are the shrouding calamities of India due to lack of patriotism among Indians? Are our decays attributed to our poly linguistic and multi-cultured coexistence? If we live for a while building walls between our inter-states like the erstwhile separated East and West Germanies, already India had been chopped off after Independence, giving rise to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, etc., we end up once again like in the old times when India was ruled by multifarious kingdoms, the only change in this fragile transposition is of being reduced to tiny banana republics. Even after such fragmentation, India’s divine glory and inseparable spirituality will truss us together forever!

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Composed on 12th & 13th August 2009 at 4.12 PM & 1.35 PM, respectively, Indian Standard Time.}

ON VICARIOSITY AND THE VICARIOUS HONOURS

ON VICARIOSITY AND THE VICARIOUS HONOURS

BY

S. MAHESHKUMAR

“A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.”—Thomas Carlyle.

THERE is no point in arguing for or against Rahman, Illaiyaraja, R. D. Burman, Naushad, M. S. Viswanathan, K. V. Mahadevan, G. Ramanathan, et al., in terms of the Awards or Prizes they receive or not receive.

These kinds of tom-toms and hypes are vicarious. To judge one’s work of its value in terms of vicarious awards such as Oscars, Nobel Prize, and others, in no way stands testimony to the greatness of a person or a work.

For example, the greatest apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, was not given the Nobel Prize, even though he was nominated for the prize many times when he was alive. In order to please the British Imperialists, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to ignore the Nobel Peace Prize to Mahatma who was revolting against the British with his almighty weapon of ‘Ahimsa.’

Citizen Kane is regarded as the all time classic in the history of world cinema. It was released in 1941 directed by Orsen Welles who also played the lead role in it. It was nominated for the Oscars in nine categories, but won only for Best Original Screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Orsen Welles.

It was alleged that the story of Citizen Kane was based on the life of the media giant William Randolph Hearst, and the film was seen by critics as a feeble imitation of Hearst. Film historian Don Kilbourne remarked that much of the information for Citizen Kane came from previously published material about Hearst and some of Kane’s speeches in the film were almost verbatim copies of Hearst’s. The Oscar Academy unjustly discredited Citizen Kane with its due honours only to evade the impending threats of William Randolph Hearst. It was one of the greatest blunders of the Oscars to be at loggerheads testifying the credibility of the Academy Awards.

The great Hollywood Film maker Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar for his work in any of his films except the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968 for lifetime achievement like the similar honorary award handed over to Satyajit Ray in his death bed in 1992.

The Bengali poet Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 but what about the Tamil poet Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathiyar? Bharathiyar, like Gandhiji, revolted against the British and hence not considered for the Nobel Prize. What about Leo Tolstoy, Henry James, Henrik Ibsen, to cite a few who were not given the Nobel?

Till date, Musical Geniuses like M. S. Viswanathan, Illaiyaraja, and many others of similar caliber were conveniently ignored by the selectors of the India’s so called ‘Padma Awards’ or their culmination, the ‘Bharat Ratna.’ Even, they ignore a posthumous ‘Bharat Ratna’ to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. What a pity!

The Great Tamil Singer T. M. Soundararajan was belatedly given the Padma Sri in 2003 whereas his juniors like Singer Lata Mangeshkar, for example, who was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1969, Padma Vibhushan in 1999 and the ultimate Bharat Ratna in 2001. Both Lata Mangeshkar and her younger sister Asha Bhosle-Burman were given the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1989 and 2000 respectively. Versatile Actors N. T. Rama Rao and Kamal Haassan were given the Padma Sri in 1968 and 1990 respectively whereas people inferior to their ability were given the higher level Padma Awards such as Padma Bhushan, etc. The Acting Encyclopaedia Sivaji Ganesan was belatedly given the Dada Saheb Phalke Award by the Government of India and the actor par excellence Nagesh utterly denied any Padma or other higher awards. All the time, there are nasty power politics, partialities and other affinities that rot the vicarious awards with their due rust and end in jokes!

To aspire for such ignorant awards is another kind of joke. Illaiyaraja lamented recently that awards given belatedly would loose their values. What to say of this!

Such are the unworthiness of awards and prizes that vicariously harvest some other achievers’ hardships.

Mathematician Andrew Wiles had solved in 1995, the Fermat’s Last Theorem, one of the two greatest unsolved problems of Mathematics, the other being the Riemann Hypothesis, but the Field’s Medal was denied to him, citing that Prof. Andrew Wiles aged 42 years in 1995, had already crossed their age limit of strictly 40 years and below to receive the Mathematical Nobel equivalent! Crazy prizes and their curious idiosyncrasies!

Four mathematicians were awarded the Fields Medal for 2006 and during the awards ceremony, all the four were expected to collect their respective gold medals and glory in Madrid, Spain, only three turned up.

In May 2006, a committee of nine mathematicians voted to award Dr. Grigory Perelman a Fields Medal for his work on the Poincaré conjecture. The Fields Medal is the highest award in mathematics; two to four medals are awarded every four years.

Sir John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, approached Dr. Perelman in St. Petersburg in June 2006 to persuade him to accept the prize. After 10 hours of persuading over two days, he gave up. Two weeks later, Dr. Perelman summed up the conversation as: “He proposed to me three alternatives: accept and come; accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later; third, I don’t accept the prize. From the very beginning, I told him I have chosen the third one. The prize was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct, then no other recognition is needed.”

On 22 August 2006, Perelman was publicly offered the medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, “for his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow.” He did not attend the ceremony, and declined to accept the medal, making him the first person in history to decline this prestigious prize.

It was reported that a U. K. newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, reported on 20th August 2006 that it had tracked down Perelman to a flat in St. Petersburg, where he had been living with his mother. The mathematician was quoted as saying: “I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest. I have published all my calculations. This is what I can offer the public.”

Nobel prizes have been turned down six times: twice by the winners, and four times because winners were forbidden to accept the award by their home countries. But the situation had been unprecedented for the 2006 Fields Medal!

Jean-Paul Sartre declined the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature because he always refused official honours. Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger jointly declined the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize due to their being awarded it even though Vietnam was not yet at peace.

What about the Musical Wizard Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? All his life, he was seeking an amicable patron to take care of the mundane necessities so that he could entirely devote time adoring Music. He was left to deteriorate but even in that miserable calamity, he bestowed the world with his lasting enchanting Music.

Rahman enjoys himself being called the ‘Mozart of Madras’ but it is like calling Actor Dhanush the ‘Indian Bruce Lee’. However, Dhanush had asked the media and his fans to stop addressing him like that. The only thing similar in the lives of Mozart and Rahman was that of their proposing and getting rejected on different aspects by the elder sisters of their respective spouses before marriage! Mozart was never converted to another religion even at the predicament of his or any of his family member’s severe ailments. He was subjected to penury and never yielded to the fakes and flatteries at the cost of his dignity. His genius transformed all his compositions into masterpieces. It is absurd to equate and compare one person with another in general and a clear case of the sickness termed vicariosis to associate oneself in somewhat like terms with that of a Bruce Lee or a Mozart in particular! Every number has got its uniqueness!!

Many a time, these vicarious prizes, awards and honours were given to unqualified people or for unsuitable reasons. Albert Einstein was never given a Nobel Prize for his celebrated contribution to Physics, ‘The Theory of Relativity.’ He was given it in 1921 for his paper on the photo-electric effect. Thomas Alva Edison never received a Nobel Prize for his numerous useful inventions.

The Prizes or Awards, constituted mostly to compensate a past sin, after their original purpose was satisfied, they add on their sinning value by yielding to manipulation, substandardness and the orgy of inflicting vicarious pleasures.

Mahatma Gandhi, Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Orsen Welles and his Citizen Kane, Andrew Wiles, Grisha Perelman and a gross of others of all times always constitute a separate class surpassing beyond the grips of vicarious awards. As long as there is darkness to blur with falsity, there is light to establish truth!

Johann Sebastian Bach humbly said: “I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results.”

Awards or Prizes will never ever measure the greatness of a glorious work. Great works survive the test of time and always inspire mankind as the guiding spirit. The greatest award or prize is bestowed to the Great Minds, who perspire with determination devoting even their minuscule moments, in the form of bliss while working that only leads to the great creations! Other ersatz recognitions only foster vicariosities of increasing orders nurturing proxy feelings which enormously corrupt the uninitiated minds. The vicarious honours are in no way equal to the inspirational primary delight achieved during the process of doing original work!

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Composed on 3rd & 4th and revised on 6th March 2009 at 5 PM & 2 PM and 12.11 PM, respectively, Indian Standard Time.}

TRIBUTE TO M. K. THYAGARAJA BHAGAVATHAR

TRIBUTE TO M. K. THYAGARAJA BHAGAVATHAR
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR

M. K. THYAGARAJA BHAGAVATHAR (01-03-1910—01-11-1959) affectionately called as M. K. T. or Bhagavathar was the maiden superstar of Tamil Cinema. With his 14 films, he had etched an everlasting edifice for himself in the world of Tamil Films. His music resounds as the rarest of its kind. His was the tolerant spirit that tolerated the exploitation of his innocence by his contemporary wicked rivals. He was the subject of ignorance, poverty, pain, and ill-treatment. But his songs stand alone as the unique testimony to the art that he nurtured, cherished and was skilled at. Like most of the great people, he was ruthlessly treated by the confused mediocrities.

During mid 1940’s, M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and N. S. Krishnan (also called as NSK) were arrested for suspicion of murder famously known at that time as the Lakshmikanthan Murder Case, both were imprisoned without proper appreciation of the evidence, which were weak and hardly sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were guilty. After unnecessary toil and turmoil imposed on them by evil elements, they were released on appeal to the Privy Council on 25th April 1947.

Lakshmikanthan, a notorious criminal and blackmailer, edited a yellow (porn) magazine called ‘Indhu Nesan’. Lakshmikanthan’s blackmailing list included the then famous personalities in all walks of life. He wrote several scandalous sex stories about them purely based on rumors and partial truths. Most of them were bogus speculations aimed at arousing public curiosity. Sometimes when he was surely in possession of solid evidence, he threaten the victims to extract huge sums. As a result, he earned more money to the hatred of many.

On 8th November 1944, Lakshmikanthan was stabbed by some foes while he was traveling in a hand-pulled rickshaw near the Veterinary College, Madras. With the knife injury, he rushed to the nearby Vepery Police Station and registered a complaint before he got himself admitted in the General Hospital, Madras. The wound was not serious and he was treated as an outpatient at the time of his arrival there. In his complaint to the police, he did not accuse anyone in particular for the assault but only mentioned that some miscreants had attacked him. He was found very jovial at the police station as he was in the hospital.

But suddenly, the next day, i.e., on 9th November 1944, Lakshmikanthan died mysteriously. He was murdered in the hospital. The police, based on the statement made by Lakshmikanthan’s bodyguard, arrested eight persons as accused for the murder. Among them were MKT and NSK. This came as a rude shock to their fans and the entire cine world.

Earlier to his getting stabbed, Lakshmikanthan advertised in his journal after he had concluded with the fictitious amorous stories about MKT and NSK that he would soon disclose crucial facts about those involved in the Boat Mail Murder. Even during his treatment at the General Hospital for the stab wounds, it was reported that Lakshmikanthan reiterated to expose the murderers who were involved in the Boat Mail Murder (In those days a train named Boat Mail used to run between Madras and Dhanushkoti). OMLSPM Lakshmana Chettiar, a rich banker travelling from Devakottai was mistakenly murdered for another in the moving train. A notable singer cum actress who travelled along with the banker disembarked in Chengalpattu and fled from the scene of crime leaving the corpse to reach Madras alone. However, with her political backing, she had managed to sidetrack, suppress and hide the truth about the real killers and escaped from the scandal scot-free by seeing the scapegoats MKT and NSK serve prison terms instead! With the aid of the Chettiar baron in the guise of a philanthropist who was plotted to be killed instead of the banker, she saw to it that the Boat Mail Case should not come to the court for trial by killing Lakshmikanthan in the General Hospital surreptitiously and conspired to have thrown the blame on the innocent MKT and NSK.

This was really an acid test to the spirit of true artists in MKT and NSK and in prison life, they worked as book-binders. They were kept together in a cell and MKT seemed shattered by the attitude of the corrupt people who plotted against his meteoric rise and NSK really laughed at the zigzag maneuvers of Fate. By his pious ways, MKT tolerated the menace.

After usual committal proceedings before the Madras Presidency Magistrate, the case came up for hearing at the Madras High court before Justice Vera Mockett. A group of brilliant lawyers namely Mr. V. T. Rangasamy Iyengar, Sri Rajagopalachariar, Mr. Braddel, Mr. B. T. Sundararajan, Sri Govind Swaminathan, Mr. Srinivasagopal and Mr. K. M. Munshi argued the case for the accused. After prolonged trial, the Jury, much to the dismay of many, found MKT and NSK guilty along with four others.

Appeals were heard by a bench of the High Court consisting of Sir Lionel Leach, Chief Justice of Madras and Justice K. P. Lakshmana Rao. Advocate General K. Rajah Aiyer argued the case on behalf of the Crown. The appeals were filed by the then leading members of the Bar, V. V. Srinivasa Iyengar and Sri V. C. Gopalarathnam. However, the appeals were dismissed.

MKT and NSK filed an appeal in the Privy Council, London which was then the highest court of appeal. The internationally famous (British Barrister), D. N. Pritt appeared for them. Privy Council then referred the case back to India for a fresh appraisal.

The appeal came up before a bench of two judges namely Mr. Justice Happel and Mr. Justice Sahabuddin (who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 during partition of India and retired as Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court). Mr. V. L. Ethiraj, a successful Barrister, appeared for MKT and NSK and argued that the Judges had not properly directed the Jury and the evidences of doubtful nature had not been properly assessed. Mr. Ethiraj convinced the Judges by his powerful arguments that all the witnesses produced against MKT and NSK were tutored and coached and there were a lot of inconsistencies in their evidence and statements and the case had many loopholes. The Judges agreed with Mr. Ethiraj’s arguments and acquitted MKT and NSK. One of the judges who heard the remanded appeal remarked in the Court that the knife produced as evidence cannot even kill a rat! The judgment was given a few months before India became free on August 15, 1947.

MKT, NSK and four others came out of prison after thirty months’ imprisonment. Experts and even laymen felt that the truth about the real killers of Lakshmikanthan had not come out and MKT, NSK and others were the unfortunate victims of the game of power politics. The real killers were never pinned down and the truth lies buried somewhere to this day. Indian legal history will record this case as one of the most tragic miscarriages of justice. (Thanks to the website dedicated to MKT).

Bhagavathar was the only superstar who excelled as a musician-actor and carved an eternal niche for himself with his platinum voice contributing few but ripe films to posterity! P. U. Chinnappa was also a musician-actor but he was not a superstar and was the forerunner of Sivaji and Kamalhassan. Hence Thyagaraja Bhagavathar was the precursor of M. G. Ramachandran and Rajnikanth in terms of superstarship among the masses! With his legacy of Gandharva Ganam, Bhagavathar was the only actor who reigned as undisputable monarch among the class and mass audiences of his time. Like Johann Sebastian Bach who continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered and revived for his musical perfection, M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar also continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered and revived for his enchanting music!

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Composed on 11th August 2008 at 2.32 PM, Indian Standard Time.}

FROM UNDERGROUND DUNGEON TO ANONYMITY

FROM UNDERGROUND DUNGEON TO ANONYMITY
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR

FROM underground dungeon to anonymity in open prison, it is regrettable that the Austrian authorities have been letting the fuss to pile up by way of secluding the Fritzl victims further and proposing to change their identities, may be, transport them to anonymous places, etc., so that they would shield them from the eager world.

By doing so, the Austrian government and others tend to arouse the curiosity of the public and the media. What had happened to Princess Diana? It is good for the Fritzl victims to appear in public and mingle with the world, for they would be treated amicably everywhere.

This case happens to be special of its kind in the land of Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis, let the victims be treated compassionately. Let the sick Fritzl also be treated to realise his piggish, eating his own shit kind of mental illness, and repent.

It is the society to blame, the mechanical, materialistic way of life to accuse, the insane pursuit of lust and orgies to point out, the careless police who ignored to retrieve the missing girl to charge, the tolerant and vulnerable mother who failed to question her amorous husband of his strange behaviour to account for, the Austrian government which try to make a mockery of the situation by arousing curiosity of the onlookers and media of its national shame to hold responsibility for furthering the menace to the victims….

The greatest contribution of Austria to the world of music was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The path breaking offering of Austria to the world of psychoanalysis was Sigmund Freud. The unique gift of Austria to the world of philosophy was Ludwig Wittgenstein. The most devastating threat of Austria to the world of terror was Adolf Hitler. And to add to the greatest disgrace of Austria now, the exposure of Joseph Fritzl’s seduction of his own daughter Elizabeth Fritzl by imprisoning her along with her selected children in an underground dungeon for nearly a quarter of a century, begetting from her seven children and the supposed molestation of Elizabeth’s first child Kerstin find no parallel for a ruthless libidomania of this sort in the known history of mankind.

The immediate cause of the First World War was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He was visiting Sarajevo when he was assassinated on 28th June, 1914, by a Serbian nationalist society known as the Black Hand. Also the Austrian Hitler was the sole cause of Second World War. In one way or the other, Austria was behind the two greatest battles of the world.

In December 2006, heaps of skulls and bones of a number of missing children were discovered in the village of Nithari on the outskirts of Noida City, a planned industrial township in Uttar Pradesh near New Delhi. A rich and politically connected Punjabi businessman, Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant and aide Surender Koli were arrested for their long time scandal of sexually assaulting, killing and burying of several children and women.

The world is bound to the crimes in the name of war, religion, insanity, hatred and so on. The world is also guarded by peace, free thinking, sanity, love and so on. An equal balance of both is no good; an excess of the former is the worst and a surplus of the latter indicates the transformation into the best possible world.

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Composed on 4th July 2008 at 1 PM from the notes written on 3rd July 2008 at 7 PM, Indian Standard Time.}

PSEUDO-UNSTERBLICHKEIT

PSEUDO-UNSTERBLICHKEIT
VERFASST VON
S. MAHESHKUMAR

Was hat Kopernikus gesagt?
Sonne ist das Zentrum ihres Systems!
Was hat Galileo bestätigt?
Die Erde umkreist die Sonne!
—
Was hat Newton postuliert?
Erde hat Schwerkraft!
Was hat Faraday experimentiert?
Der Zusammenhang zwischen Elektrizität und Magnetismus!
—
Was hat Darwin abgeleitet?
Daβ der Mensch vom der Menschenaffen stammte!
Was haben Watson, Crick und Rosalind gefunden?
Daβ das Erbgut die Vererbung bewahrt!
—
Was hat Einstein verallgemeinert?
Schwerkraft und Relativität!
Was hat Heisenberg behauptet?
Das Prinzip der Unsicherheit!
—
... usw.
—
Mit ihren Entdeckungen und Erfindungen
Schlafen die Wissenschaftler in ihren Gräbern zufrieden
Von ihrer Pseudo-Unsterblichkeit
Daβ ihre Taten ihnen geben würden
—
Da die Wissenschaft ein Versuch und Irrtum ist
Daher ihre Ausgänge Halbwahrheiten sind
Mit dem Advent eines wissenschaftlichen Nutzens
Da wartet damit ein neues Defizit
—
Da Wissenschaft eine vergängliche Mimin
Von Natur und Gott ist, die unsere Vernunft verzehrt
Um ihr kein Vertrauen zu schenken
MÜSSEN WIR VERTRAUEN ZU UNSERER INNEREN WAHRHEIT HABEN
—
—S. Maheshkumar.

MEMOIRS OF MY COLLEGE

MEMOIRS OF MY COLLEGE
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR

I was a Student of C. Kandaswamy Naidu College for Men, Anna Nagar (East), Chennai–600102, during 1986-1989 Session of B. Sc., Mathematics. Mr. K. Babu, Head of the Department (H.O.D), Mr. K. Prakasam, Mrs. C. Manonmani, Mr. P. Gajivaradhan and Mr. M. Perumal taught us in the Maths Subjects, Mr. S. Ramalingam, Mrs. Ponnammal and Nandhini Madam taught Chemistry, Mrs. Chella Rajendran and Mr. P. Gnanasekaran taught Physics, Prof. S. Duraivelu (H.O.D), Mr. N. P. Ravi Kumar, Mr. C. Thirugnanam, Mr. R. Thiruvalluvan and Mr. G. Minmanirajan taught English, Dr. D. Gnanasundaram (H.O.D), Dr. R. Gurunathan, Dr. K. Narasimhan and Mr. R. Venugopal taught Tamil. Our Principals were Dr. M. Muthuraman followed by Dr. R. S. Raghavan.

More than a couple of decades ago, when I joined in the C. K. N. College, Anna Nagar was more peaceful than it is now. The College had a quadrangle which housed the Principal Room, Library, the respective Departments of Mathematics, Physics along with its Lab, English, Tamil, few class rooms, etc. With the two constructions dedicated to Chemistry Lab and its Department respectively near the College Entrance which was situated then at the right as against the present left with the Arch now, there were thatched roof huts at the backyard of the quadrangle used as classrooms. We had one such hut called “Valluvar Kudil” as our I year classroom and for the II and III years, our classrooms were situated inside the quadrangle at its front entrance and near the back entrance respectively.

Everyday when I attended college, I used to have lunch at the erstwhile Hotels opposite our college, viz., Suprabath or Meera. During the three years that I spent at the college, I did not think of climbing the Anna Nagar Tower and in the concluding months of the III year, I resolved to go there with some of my friends and watched the panorama of the city from top of the Tower. We had once went for boating on the pond in the vicinity of the Anna Nagar Tower in our I year. The quadrangle in our college was built for the purpose of the 1968 World Exhibition and was used as a registration cum liaison office. The erstwhile Grand Theatre was the inevitable asylum of the students of our college.

Those were the good old days when we spent our time at C. K. N. College, dreaming of our future careers. We really enjoyed our English classes taken by our revered Duraivelu Sir. “My lord, the Baby” by Ravindranath Tagore, in the II year prose book, “A Garland of Prose” among others such as George Eliot’s “Silas Marner” which Duraivelu Sir had taught is still vivid in my memory. Ravikumar Sir taught “The Merchant of Venice” in the II year and we too enjoyed his relaxed elaborations.

Dr. Narasimhan (or Dr. A for short between us) was in his own way amorous in teaching Tamil. Dr. Gnanasundaram always taught Tamil lessons with a mixture of self-praising about his greatness, his association with noted Tamil Scholars, such as Kee. Vaa. Jagannadhan, et al., his visit to Sri Lanka for the Tamil Conference, etc. He used to jocularly remark quite often in his classes that people who attended his orations praise him admiringly as against his wife who kept on warning him to stop the boring at least in their house! Dr. Gurunathan was specific in his instructions and once in my way back home after college, he travelled with me till Pachaiyappa’s College where he had an errand to take care of; we then chatted about literature and I asked him what was his estimation of the Tamil mystery writer Thamizhvaanan and his famous Shankarlal Detective Series. He advised me to read its original version in the Sherlock Holmes Series by Arthur Connon Doyle and thus influenced me to give preference to the primary works instead of succumbing to plagiarisms and adaptations. Mr. Venugopal was casual in his expositions and we fondly call him among ourselves as “Agathiyar” due to his striking resemblance with the ancient Tamil dwarf Poet!

Prakasam Sir’s classes were methodical as against Manonmani Madam’s that she used to teach mostly by sitting and reciting from her notes! Gajivaradhan Sir used to jot down his notes on the board and try to explain whereas Perumal Sir used to recite his material, sometimes along with the board and sometimes without. Babu Sir’s scribblings on the board were always difficult to decipher but anyhow some of us managed to get through the exams with lot of self study!

One interesting event happened in the III year concerning myself and Gajivaradhan Sir. He taught Real Analysis in the III year. In the II year I scored centum in his subject, “Vector Analysis” among few others. I also scored centum in Linear Programming in the final year taught by Perumal Sir along with some others. After Gaji Sir had completed the first chapter in Tom M. Apostol’s ‘Mathematical Analysis’, he announced his wish to conduct tests on Mondays in the first period whenever needed. It was in the last week of August 1988. I happened to visit my native place, Srikalahasti, the previous Friday and stayed there the week-end. I woke up early to get the first bus in the Monday morning and returned home around 9 am. Hurriedly I placed my travel bag at home, picked my college bag and rushed towards the Bus Stop. Waited till 10.30 am for buses but could not find any and returned home tiredly due to the 4 hours travel. When I went to college the other day, Krishnan and Dhanapal who were present for the test the day before, reported to me about Gajivaradhan Sir’s curse on me: After noticing my place empty, he lamented by saying, “When I conduct test now, he did not turn up; may he be wasted!” Later in life, I was the first to address him with the Dr. Prefix when I greeted him and shook hands as soon as he descended from the podium after clearing the Viva Voce held at our Ramanujan Institute in December 2006, “Congratulations, Dr. Gajivaradhan Sir!” and he said, “Thank you, Mahesh!” I took his curse which was an involuntary ejaculation as a blessing in disguise!

As I had my own Mathematical, Philosophical, Musical and Poetical yearnings, I used to study a lot apart from class portions. Also I never used to memorise unless I grasped the crux of a problem. I was most of the time under the influence of inspiration about the concepts, physical and metaphysical, of the great men who contributed to the upliftment of the Arts and Sciences! It made me to cast aside Physics and Chemistry lessons which demanded more out of me apart from those taught in brief at the college. It was the chief reason that delayed me to complete my UG belatedly!

My desk mates were Krishnan and Dhanapal for all the three years. Other classmates were Anandan, Andrews, Balaji, Banu Prasad, Dilip Kumar, Haridoss, Jagadheesan, Mohan Durai, Murali, Panchatcharam, Prabakaran, Ram Babu, Shankar, Shanmugam, Srinivasa Prasad, Thirunavukkarasu and Zacharia Ravikumar.

B. R. Banu Prasad had scored cent percent in all the Maths papers for all the 3 years. A senior student, K. Sugumaran (III Year B. Sc. Maths), who could not get through his I year Maths paper made arrangements to sit next to Banu Prasad in our I year Examination; to the amazement of his friends, he was also surprised that he had scored 100 marks!

Our friend V. Dilip Kumar had been fortunate enough to become friends with a young Maths lecturer who resided in the neighbourhood of Dilip’s apartment. With his ability for memorising, Dilip utilised that opportunity to the maximum and scored good marks next to Banu Prasad. Dilip used to practise by way of writing impositions in the note books and loose sheets of his classmates the things that he had learned from his lecturer friend surreptitiously! He invited those who were interested to his house and mimic his lecturer friend’s teachings!

About my friends, Krishnan was the only notable friend with whom I enjoyed a carrying friendship till 2003. It was when he started accusing my aims and efforts that made me silent with him. Dhanapal, the first son of Mr. Babu, our revered H.O.D., who used to visit me with Krishnan and I too reciprocated him with the same. He once came to my house months after he had joined M.Sc., (1990-91) in Pachaiyappa’s College which he discontinued later, we talked for some time and at the end I presented him with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (ELBS Edition)”—a second hand book that I had bought by fasting for my personal study during my college days! I used to call him as “Dhaganabagal!” which he could not resist and try to re-phrase my name accordingly but without the expected laughing element in it! We two made a fun when our Chemistry lecturer explained about “Piperidine” [A strongly basic, colourless liquid, C5H10NH, used in the manufacture of rubber and as a curing agent in epoxy resins.] in the I year Allied Class just because of its curious pronunciation that erupted us to burst into murmurs of laughter!!

About Mohan Durai, he was one of the 6 or 7 successful students who had passed their B. Sc. Degree Examinations in the first session. He is of a kind who intrudes in your way once in two or three years only to know about your present status quo and vanish! One thing that I don’t forget about him was that he sponsored me, Krishnan and Anandhan to witness in the afternoon of a day in the first week of December 1986, (i.e. on 5th December 1986, a Friday, I succeed recollecting it!), a recording session for the Tamil Movie “Mandhirappunnagai” by Sri Illaiyaraja and his crew at the Prasad Studios. Anandhan was Mohan’s best friend. I used to meet him at his work place which was in a lane behind the erstwhile Alankar Theatre where he worked as a Computer Operator during 1991 / 92. Later when I went there for him, the firm’s owner reported me that Anandhan did not turn up for a long time. After that, he visited me to hand-over Mohan’s wedding invitation on 1st March 1994.

I saw Murali once passing in the street as I was about to get into my house in 1997; I took him inside my place and we chatted for a while. He was doing some odd jobs and he narrated the fatal story of Prabakaran who had succumbed to Jaundice months ago! Prabakaran overworked with a money earning game, that of joining more and more people in a scheme geometrically that was supposed to credit the members with subsequent money gains! Panchatcharam was Prabakaran’s one good friend but Panchatcharam could not prevent him from his ruining ways! Prabakaran’s catchphrase had been the Tamil word, “Goramai.” In any conversation, he would utter the word several times! He got his liver misoperated at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and died on the operation table; the Apollo demanded fees for their mistake but some people arranged to hand over the mortal remains to his family without paying any!

Andrews and I often talked about English Movies. Thirunavukkarasu quite often briefed me about his violinist father who used to accompany as violinist in the programmes of the danseuse Alarmelvalli. He had once commented to me about the open drainage at our college entrance and I could not comprehend what he had been saying for a while until I corrected him just because he pronounced the word “drainage” as “drugsage!” Thirunavukkarasu had passed his B. Sc., in the I batch. Ram Babu daily attended College from Sullurpet by train. In one of the English Exams, Shankar had handed over to the supervisor a 40 plus pages bulk of answer sheets and when we asked him why, he replied, if he would be given at least one mark per page, he would certainly get through the paper! Shankar got through all the papers in the end to add his name in the I list of successful students. I had been jovially addressing him as “Bunkcher!” by making some changes in his name and Shankar contemplated over it in the beginning and later took it as my friendly gesture!

Balaji passed typing & stenography and was selected to serve in the Human Resource Department, New Delhi, at the end of his college days and he was in the first list of successful students to clear B. Sc., in April 1989. Srinivasa Prasad was a nice guy. Shanmugam had the same name and initial of my father and once I had remarked him about it and to my surprise, the expansion of his initials also matched same to that of my paternal grandfather’s name Sri Ezhumalai. He was also a good classmate as Jagadheesan.

Haridoss lived in his own world, dressing differently, sometimes growing more hairs, unshaved, enjoying fully his days at the college. I used to call him as “Agabarigabas!” and he admired my calling him like that. Zacharia Ravikumar sometimes travelled with me on my return from college and he was genial.

Except Dilip Kumar and Banu Prasad, all the classmates had mutually exchanged their autographs and addresses at the end of the III year. Dilip and Banu had just written theirs in our notebooks and showed no interest in getting our details. Dilip had done his M. Sc., (1989-91) and M. Phill., (1991-93) at Loyola College and was a Gold Medallist for his performance in the exams. He had an accident around 1996 and was hospitalised for some time. After recuperation, he learned IBM Mainframe and the Y2K Problem and served for Satyam Computer Services Ltd., followed by Sony Company in Japan for a couple of years. Currently he is with the Sony Company in one of its branches in the US. Banu Prasad joined in the Engineering Discipline at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, after passing his B. Sc., with highest marks. I used to explain him about the Liar Paradox and share many other things from my personal studies and researches. Banu and I did not have the opportunity to contact each other after we had left C. K. N. College. I have been visiting Dilip and his parents now and then. Banu and Dilip had successful academic stories and I cherish them as my good friends.

Apart from my classmates, I had few friends from other classes such as Jayaprakash (one year my senior in the B. Sc. Maths), Kannan and Rangamani (one year senior to me in the B. Sc. Physics). We had combined classes for Allied Chemistry in our I year along with the students of II year B. Sc. Physics. Kannan had relatives in Tiruvannamalai and he guided me earlier as to where to get down from the bus in Tiruvannamalai so that I could reach Sri Ramanasramam quickly when I visited the Abode of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for the first time on 5th & 6th December 1987.

After completing B. Sc., I had joined for my M. Sc., in The Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, University of Madras, Chennai–600005. As my researches are based on Mathematical Philosophy, I have been currently equipping myself with the German Language to be able to study the German works of Leibniz, Riemann, Gödel, Wittgenstein, et al in addition to the English works of Whitehead, Russell, Hardy, Ramanujan, et al. I believe in my endeavour of successfully evolving A New Theory of Zero which I have christened as “ZEROICS” and steadfastly pursuing my researches by following the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas’ maxim to humanity for sure success, in the conclusion of his magnum opus, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, that “the greatest wisdom of humanity is contained in the two words, ‘Wait and Hope!’”

All your friends may come and go but your College houses your memories along with that of your friends, teachers, events of the time, etc., and whenever you happened to pass by it or think of it, those memories will always jolt you with the Nostalgia, Cheerfulness, Recollections and Reflections of the times!

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Final Draft Composed on 3-10-2007 at 3.02 PM with subsequent revisions made on 5th & 8th October 2007 at 12. 07 PM &10.33 AM, respectively, Indian Standard Time.}

THE ENIGMA OF RAMA SETHU

THE ENIGMA OF RAMA SETHU
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR

DIVINITY and Science can go together in an amicable world where there is mutual respect for the sole benefit of mankind. It is unwise to deem Science as a dogma as theology is trying to deem Divinity. The relation between Divinity and Science is that the former is the culmination of the latter. India is the temple of the world where gods have been evolving, spreading the spirituality of the eternal Vedas. As Science is not complete enough to boast that it has conquered the Super-Science of Nature, how can scientific speculations about the Enigma of the Rama Sethu be accurate? India has been subjected to countless invasions for its treasures, from the recent past by the Moguls followed by the British, by the multinational companies, by the corrupt politicians, etc., at present, but the spiritual treasure of India has been protecting and acting as a guardian angel testifying the fuzzy courses of the world for ages!

The greatness of the Rama Sethu is that it has survived numerous natural calamities, such as the recent Tsunami, and still it stands erect as the divine testimony of the gods surpassing the incomplete wisdom of science. If Lord Rama really ever trekked on the Rama Sethu along with His clique leading to Sri Lanka, to retrieve his beloved consort Sri Sita Devi, that episode of the Divine alone could shield the Rama Sethu from the bastions of pseudoism who are neither scientific nor divine enough to adjudge the limitedness of science and appreciate the greatness the divine! Belief is to Divinity as enquiry is to Science, the inseparable tools of enlightenment! It is impious to cherish Divinity by mere enquiry only as it is nasty to practice Science by mere belief alone!! Actually, the spirit of enquiry matures into belief alongside the maturity of Science into Divinity!!!

Science is still combating to resolve many deadly diseases, trying to comprehend the vistas of the Universe, assessing the working of the Brain, decoding the DNAs, and so on. Even the meteorological science is uncertain as to the exact prediction of the weathers of nature. One faction of politicians points out at their convenience the immature scientific speculations that the Rama Sethu was not man-made and therefore be destroyed and the other faction suggests in favour of their beliefs in divinity citing alternate routes without affecting the Rama Sethu to effect the proposed Sethu Samudram Project.

If there are alternate routes apart from the Route of the Rama Sethu to accomplish the Dream Project of Sethu Samudram, what prevents some politicians to never yield?; are they trying to hurt the religious feelings of the Hindus?; are they under the influence of any international conspiracy by declaring for the international sea traffic a passage that is as close to the Indian Coastal Region as that of the Rama Sethu posing a severe threat to the National Security?; are they under pressure to return their share of commissions if they change their minds?; are they to garner affluence by illegally exporting the largest thorium deposits available in the world at the southern tip of India extending up to the Kerala beach?; and such questions line up to expose the culprits.

May Lord Rama protect His Sethu and His believers from the clutches of the wicked Ravanas in the disguise of nasty politicians and their baleful allies!

—S. Maheshkumar.

{Composed on 26th September 2007 at 4.16 PM, Indian Standard Time.}