Macaulay's Children

Macaulay is often credited with modernizing (read anglicizing) the educational system in India (British India) in the early 1800s. Today my thoughts are reflective upon what has transcended from those days and its effect on people like me.

When I used to be a school kid, in Tamil Nadu system of education (matric and state board), decent emphasis was placed on learning - understanding concepts, facts. But looking back, I felt that a much greater emphasis was placed on ability to reproduce a bulk of these stuffs repeatedly till the term is over. Success was gauged based on skill to put in paper, during an exam, without error, in a very legible fashion, verbatim from text book a lot of these facts. So, the thought process - "thinking and analyzing" - about a concept or fact stops the moment a particular chapter is covered by the teacher in the classroom. What prevails is the repeated memorizing and the need to reproduce what was memorized in a fashion I told earlier. Exams are all about memory power, legible calligraphy and timely completion of text book material. Period. No thinking needed in 99% of cases.

Now that brings us back to the Macaulay we started with- who wanted to breed a class of Indians who are literate in English (so that the rulers can communicate), keep legible records, remember laws/rules without thinking what they actually do and communicate with vernaculars. At 30, I am afraid that I am a product of that school. No disrespect intended to my teaches, for whom I hold the highest respects and regards even today for their tireless efforts to see us succeed and treating us as their kids and taking a genuine interest on us. I am very fortunate to have many a teacher like this in my child hood. But its the system that I am not able to come to terms with. Read the passage from Macaulay's speech on India at this link.

Barring me, I am yet to come across a single soul of my age who has not hated his history classes, for example. What do you expect when you are made to memorize meaningless numbers and dates and bland events and not to reflect or appreciate the impact those events had on your lives even to date. How many of us had to do some research of our own and bring in or contribute stuffs that are not spelled out in the sacred text books that we slept with daily. But for some great teachers and my parents' interest in me and an insane amount of luck, I would have developed nothing but hatred in most academia stuffs and my child hood would not be something I can look back and feel happy about and feel obligated to provide the a similar nostalgic one to my kid.

Today's pics are a symbolic representation of how our minds felt in early days of schooling in a Macaulay-ish system. (Note of course, there are educational systems like the CBSE, ICSE etc which dont come under this umbrella.) The pictures are of the closed race track I bought for my kid. The technique used to show the motion of the car toys with the streak of light trailing behind them is called - rear curtain sync - a flash photography technique where you set the flash to fire just before the shutter closes and the shutter speed is slow enough compared to the speed of moving object so that it causes the light streak.

We should have felt like these cars - going round and round in a closed controlled system yet thinking all the time that we are up to something great. Here is what I yearn for -
"Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

Driving through Desi Roads..

When I first came to USA, the roadways is one sure thing that got my attention initially. The orderly highways, lane discipline, exit/entry ramps, intuitive signals etc. Once you start driving in US roads, after the initial excitement, driving becomes pretty much a no-brain-involved act. Sometimes boring to the extent that no mind is involved either which is very scary for me these days particularly after marriage and having a kid.

After driving in America for a few years, when I look at Indian Roads, the way the traffic flows, I get a whole new perspective and excitement. And for pete's sake, this time around I am not even driving - just sitting inside an auto-rickshaw or a taxi. Never before have I felt this excitement, not even when driving my Honda motorcycle during my early twenties - cruising at full throttle in mid sun without helmet in the slippery inner ring road of Bangalore connecting Koramangla and Indira Nagar.

This time around we made a trip to Tirupathi in a rented cab. The driver who accompanied us actually took us on a roller coaster - literally cruising at 90kmph on Chennai Road, deftly maneuvering all the small gaps, overtaking vehicles in night on a single lane road with only enough gap to get through before the oncoming traffic gets to us. We are still alive but that was one heck of a ride. My son, used to his comfortable seat and view in my Honda back in US, was literally speechless the whole trip.

I had my D40 so decided to capture the excitement we felt and test my camera at the same time. Attached pic shows lot of stuff - our cab trying to overtake the yellow trucker in front of us on a one way road. The driver while edging past the truck, noticing an oncoming bus. For a split second, we were literally in the dead center between them with only just a few feet separating us from the oncoming bus. And while I was trying my best to get my balance and snap the pic at the same time, you can see our driver chatting with us with both hands off the wheel in this instant. The rear view mirror shows his eyes fixed on the road fortunately. Not a great photo from a technique point of view but tells a lot of story.

Kaarthigai Festival

Taken with my D40 during Kaarthigai Deepam 08 time frame at my home in India. The Background is our home pooja room (prayer/god room). The two vilakku on the foreground are of silver make.

Nothing more to add today other than what crossed my mind over the weekends -

• Shri Mandir in San Diego sported a notice asking devotees to provide them with their VONS club card number.. Yes, VONS. Apparently VONS will donate 2% of the purchases made using those cards to the temple fund. Got reminded of the saying - "amavasaikkum abdul kadarukkum enna sambandam".. forget about a business being religious minded, thats common in India. But why in US of all places, and why VONS that too to a Hindu Minority organization and that too in a bad economy. Anyways, planning to give my VONS card details as well.
• Shiva Vishnu Temple is planning on a regular temple in Escondido. I am not sure how much I can contribute monetarily to such an ambitious project other than my regular hundi contributions every week. Let me see.

In Memoriam...

While the term "Festival of Lights" is reserved for "Deepavali", I have always felt that its immediate successor festival - Karthigai Deepam - has more merit to be called so. Atleast my experience has been thus so far. I do like both and infact, after many years living outside of not only my family but even my country, finally I got a chance to be at home with parents for 2008 Karthigai Deepam festival. Mom has not changed bit in her routines other than what aging process brings in. This time we also had my family - wife and son - at our place. Though not that common, I lit up fire crackers for my kid to see for the first time in his life. New clothes to wear - was like a Deepavali-Karthigai combo.

When the whole world lights up these tiny earthern light pots, its a feast not only to my eyes this time but also my camera's sensor :-) Attached is a photo that I liked most out of the bunch. The arkness and bokeh adds to the luminousity of the lamp. Was windy so couldnt get the flame sharper.

Today - Jan 30th - is Martyr's Day - the day when Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. Gandhi has been inspirational to me in more ways than one since childhood days and as I grow up, I only get painfully aware of how miniscule I am in my ways of life compared to what he achieved. I dont know when I can do something worthy of being from the same nation that gave the world this great soul. I have had my share of time with friends who ridicule Gandhi to this day for his deeds - bless their souls, ignorance is there everywhere still prevalent even among the educated lot. It takes only spur of a moment to life a weapon but lot of courage and strength to put it down. In today's world of brute force capitalism, it seems virtue if a person is able take care of his needs without harming anyone, let alone caring for others and society without selfish interests. Here's a favorite line from "Gandhi" movie - a magnum opus on the great soul -

BOURKE-WHITE:

But do you really believe you could
usenon-violence against someone like Hitler?

GANDHI (a thoughtful pause):

Not without defeats– and great pain. (He looks at her.) But are there no defeats in this war– no pain? (For a moment the thought hangs, and then Gandhi takes their handsback to the spinning.) What you cannot do is accept injustice. From Hitler – oranyone. You must make the injustice visible – be prepared to die like a soldier to do so.

-- and Gandhi went on to live and die like one - a true soldier in all sense of the term. Today's photo pick symbolises the great soul - shining solely among darkness.

Kolam...

"Kolam" is one of the symbols of Indian culture. The drawings created on a daily basis (early morning that too) in the floor in front of the house using rice flour. Their grandeur increases many folds during festivals and house occasions. "Maavu kolam" or "Ezhai Kolam" is made with rice flour mixed in water and needs special skill to get it right. My mom has been an exponent of these since my childhood days even though she displays humility when asked about it and inturn points to her sisters/mother-in-law as virtuoso of the art.

Attached pic was taken outside our house during our India trip. The occasion was my brother's marriage. My mom drew it. The pic came out like a poster on a wall. The old concrete floor feels like a modern wall part of some sort with mystic design in it. The picture has really come out satisfactorily.

Life on Wings...

Air travel has never failed to mesmerize me, much like the same way a booming train engine still draws my attention. Only that with air travel, I am getting to think about different dimensions of it rather than always getting carried away by the Bxxx and Azzz's gradeur on the tarmac looking through the airport's glasses.

Air travel is becoming an integral part of life of our generation and with a toddler running around us, its not that care free air travel as it used to be. Portable DVD player, kid's DVDs, strollers, kids' books, play items form majority of our carry-ons. This time around for the trip my kid was more accomodative that we had expected. But with air travel becoming affordable and competitve, the luxury part of it is now replaced by a necessity, and partly that reason takes the charm out of it.

Airports however are interesting places - always awake, happening, demographic microcosms of the world - particularly the major airports. I used to wonder how world has been shrunk so small - a couple of desis who were speaking tamil getting something at some unknown chinese fast food, another pair with a "Nalli" (a traditional clothing store in Chennai) "manja pai" (yellow bag) peeping out of their cart window shopping in some big-name-high-flung fashion outlet. Still not able to come out of the impact of this even after several air travels. Dont get me started on the food. After a trip to India, its all road kill. Atleast I can "muscle my way past the gag reflex" but for my wife its unbearable even while leaving US. Hence as usual, my kid was treated to some home-made Idlis that formed our carry-on. Lots have improved, I should say, to make this air travel boom manageable. The check-ins, e-ticketing etc etc. But the security check where you have to strip except for your underwears still irks me. Gosh, we got to get some gizmo that scans us unobstrusively...

The attached pic was taken at Hong Kong airport while waiting for our LAX flight. I have tried to capture the integration of the world there where entire airport seems to converge to the center of the photo. The carousel and people on it shot with motion blur trying to give a sense of motion towards the center and the center crowded than the rest. I wasnt expert enough to avoid the highlighted sign board on the left. The bland color of the top and the floor provided an unobstrusive background yet giving the needed perspective of convergence.

What If....

Today is election day here in US. Since I live in a democrat state, for the past 2 presidential/midterm election, have never seen a single banner or political speech of any sort. Everybody has written it off as democrate. only the local ballot measures make waves and news here.

I couldn't help wondering what will happen if some election related events/concepts seen in US were to reflect in elections back in my home country - INDIA -

• Phone canvassing - Here you get calls if you are an unregistered voter. In India, during the 2004 polls, the BJP party used unsolicited text messages (called SMS back home) to spam all the mobile users. No one can do a thing about it and we had to wait for BJP to give that tactic itself after all the negative response this act elicited.




• Absentee ballot and early voting - This would be classic. Guess what, with all the gundas and henchmen that politicians have, all you have to do to know the election results is to wait for the ballot papers to get printed. Once its printed, bham....your vote will be immediately cast for you as an absentee or early voter to the party that has the muzzle of power and money.




• Debates - This would actually do some good. Not only will the TVs get to telecast it directly as a full-fledged sit com, if you are lucky, the gundas of both sides may get into a tussle and can even do good to the nation by killing the other group's netha (leader).




• Ballot measures - For get it, already our ballots seem like tissue rolls with so many candidates with their symbols etc. We dont have space for anything else. BTW, when did we get that much involved in civic and local matters so that we demanded a ballot measure on anything. We are indians for pete sake !!!
  

This post's picture was taken with D40 at Seattle Downtown area. It has no relevance to this post except for the fact the wooden pole shown is of "American Indian" heritage while the post is concerned with "Indian Indian" :-)