When I am a Grandfather

Now that I have mastered the art of being an irresponsible father, now it is time to set higher goals. How to be a similarly irresponsible (or even more irresponsible) grandfather. I have started preparing the materials required for the same. As all such researches these days seem to start with "literature survey", "study of secondary resources" or "internet search", I too did the same.

The first chapter is on "how to give important good advice that will help my grandkids". So, I am saving this from Pickles for future reference. Thought some of you will also be interested in this.




I wish my grandfather had also groomed me like this right from my childhood...

Guru - Dignified Death

Guru died.

Guru was my mother's dog in our village. Last month, when we had gone home, he died. He was not well and we don't know what was the reason. He didn't eat for three days; just walking around here and there. And, one afternoon, he went to the nearby garden and died. What a dignified death.

I thought, there is a lesson for me there. Do something useful till your last. But, when your time is up, take a couple of days to close the programmes and shut things down. And, quietly turn the machine off and lie down to sleep. No fuss, nothing. Terrific.

When I shared this thought with Premila, saying "Man has an important lesson to learn from dogs about 'Dignity in Death'", she retorted, "There are hundreds of lessons man can learn from dogs!"

How true. I wonder where crows and all those birds always circling around in the sky go to die.

Different perspectives

Children have quite different perspectives in life. Especially very different from their teachers.. not to mention parents! Even when they are ant kids...


When the teacher says "it is impossible to teach you anything" exasperatingly, who would have thought that it meant something like this! I know another interesting conversation as well. Between a boy coming back from his 1st day in the school.

Father : "How was it, son, your first day in the school?"
Son : "No good, Dad. This teacher is not good."
Father : "Why, what happened?"
Son : "She could not complete teaching me. She asked me to come to school again tomorrow...."

When do we lose all these perspectives while busy growing up?

Black is Beautiful

As mentioned in the last blog, the big cultural movement called 'Black is Beautiful' was an exciting one. Just to feed to your curiosity, here is an introduction straight from the wikipedia.

Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that began in the United States of America in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread to much of the black world, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. It aims to dispel the notion in many world cultures that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly.

John Sweat Rock was the first to coin the phrase "black is beautiful" during a speech in 1858. The movement also encouraged men and women to stop straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin. The prevailing idea in American culture, perpetuated by the media, was that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. This idea even existed in black communities and led to practices such as paper bag parties.
Paper bag parties were 20th century African-American social events at which only individuals with complexions at least as light as the color of a brown paper bag were admitted. The term also refers to larger issues of class and caste within the African-American community.

Among other achievements, the "black is beautiful" movement was largely responsible for the popularity of the Afro hairstyle.

Even now the movement has not fully taken hold. According to figures compiled by the Essence market research team, African Americans spend 25 percent more of their disposable income on personal care products than the general population. Natural hair styles are still considered "somewhat rebellious" or "unkempt" in parts of the United States.

The central purpose of the movement was "to make African Americans totally and irreversibly proud of their racial and cultural heritage." During this movement, there were a few other topics addressed besides that of having black pride. Art became increasingly important because of a newly appreciated relationship between art and politics. Political struggles bring about art that can later be used to explain things.

Kwame Brathwaite, president of the National Council of Artists (NCA) New York chapter stated,

We came together to deal with the arts, to tie them to what was going on in Africa. We had the idea; you can’t divorce art from the struggle. As a result, artists were no longer artists, but the organizers of a movement. We replaced the word "negro" with "African". Another topic or perspective is that of "black nationalism". This principle introduces the idea of blacks having a totally separate society from whites.

Politics around Identity and Groups is quite interesting to learn. Anita wrote about a book called "Tribes : We need you to lead us". Will write about it sometime later.

Coloured people

It seems, this poem was written by an African kid and was nominated by UN as the best poem in 2006. Very poignant ... and, true.

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you grey
And you calling me colored??

One of the fascinating things I have heard about the african americans has been their 'Black is Beautiful' campaign. Have you all heard about it?

Never Underestimate a Malayali

I have heard different versions of this story - including even one on our Tamil superstar, Rajinikanth. But, this Mallu version is the best, as this seems to have been writeen by a Mallu as well. So, enjoy!!

Kuttappan the Great

Kuttappan is a Malayali working for a multinational company in Mumbai. Not well educated and he is working as a peon. Whenever Kuttappan hears somebody talk, he will come in between saying that I know that very well, I know him very well, like that.

One day Kuttappan's Boss, a foreign educated person & a North Indian was talking something about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kuttappan was passing thru that way, suddenly he came in between saying that oh Arni he is my best friend. Kuttapan's boss laughed at him saying that how can u be a friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, you are only a peon living in India. Kuttappan said if u wont believe its your problem, I cant help you.

Ok, The Manager said I am going on a trip to US next week you come as my assistant and we will go to Arnold's house and see what happens. Kuttappan agreed with a smile. A week after they landed in US. First they went to NY. Arnold was there in NY. They went to meet Arnold. Seeing Kuttappan Arnold ran towards Kuttappan and hugged him asking that hey Kuttappan long time, no see, where were you man? Kuttappan went with Arnold to have some coffee.
Boss was stunned. When Kuttappan came back the boss told him that we will go to Clinton's place. Let's find out whether u know him or not. Kuttappan agreed with a smile. At Clinton's home Clinton also did the same as Schwarzenegger asking that where were you my friend for long time? Kuttappan went to have tea with Clinton while the boss was sitting out side the gate

When Kuttappan came back, boss said I have to go to Vatican to get blessings from Pope John Paul, so u come with me. At the Vatican crowd from all over the world is waiting to see Pope John Paul. Kuttappan and his boss are also there. Boss asked Kuttappan, do you know Pope John Paul. Kuttappan said y not? Boss told Kuttappan that he will not believe this.
Kuttappan asked boss to wait for some time and went inside the crowd. After 15 minutes Kuttappan came on the balcony along with Pope John Paul. Pope John Paul was holding Kuttappan's hand. Kuttappan's boss became unconscious and fell down.When Kuttappan came back his boss was on a stretcher by his side nurses and paramedics. Kuttappan asked Sir what happened.

Then boss told; Kuttappa u know Arnold I believe, u know Clinton I believe and u know Pope John Paul I believe that too but WHEN U CAME WITH POPE AT THE BALCONY THE CROWD WERE ASKING WHO IS THAT OLD MAN IN WHITE DRESS HOLDING THE HAND OF KUTTAPPAN. After hearing that I became unconscious.

LESSON FROM THIS STORY

NEVER EVER UNDER ESTIMATE A MALAYALI ....

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Please don't delete this after reading, You should atleast send this mail to:
10 Malayalis & you will receive coconut oil,
20 Malayalis and you will receive banana chips,
40 Malayalis you will receive appams,
100 Malayalis and you will get free land near the rice field behind the lungi factory with additional incentive of a whole month's supply of coconut oil and banana chips free.

Long live Kuttappans and other Malayalis!!

PS : I thought, I will select some typical Kerala photographs to accompany this blog. Hope you enjoyed them. But, the best is the one below called "Kerala Airlines".

Don't miss the Captain going to the cabin - folding his 'mundu' ...

Longevity

First a nice joke.

I am not keen on taking pills. So, when my doctor gave me a prescription to lower my blood pressure, I asked him if there were any side effects.

"Yes," he said, "Longevity".

Even though I wrote about keeping the worries to a minimum in the last blog, one of the things I am worried about seriously is longevity. One thing I don't want to do is to live longer. ("Anyone up there? do you hear me?")

Like in this joke, I don't want to do anything which will have a side effect of longevity. Though I like walking, people are threatening me that I will end up living longer this way. I am in a quandry now. Whether to walk or not?


There are many things like that. Even though I have carefully avoided doing any physical exercise, the low-key lifestyle and walking seem to have a negative fallout on longevity. What can I do to have a nice time now, but still end up dying early, I wonder. How to have the cake and eat it too? Any suggestions?

I tried to make a list of 'evils' - which are normally considered as joy for the present, but worry for the future. I thought, it may be helpful to pick up some bad habits, which may facilitate my eagerness to avoid longevity. But, I can't stand smoking. So, that is ruled out. Liquor etc. seem to result in we losing consciousness, which I am totally opposed to. Unfortunately, I have a very uncooperative palate - not liking things which are considered good to reduce longevity. I still like food with chillies and salt - so, there is some hope to contract blood pressure, I guess.

Many of the bad habits also seem to have an element of addiction and overdoing. So, I have decided to get addicted to some habits and overdo them, hoping that this will help in my aim. Now, I listened to music non-stop at home, we watch movies regularly - almost daily? - ranging from cartoon films to 'chick flicks', peppered with James Bond and slapstic comedy ones. Of course, trying to surround myself with people who can infect me with sick jokes!

Mianren, the chinese god/goddess of longevity

Let me see if I succeed in my attempt. If any of you have any other brighter ideas that can help my endeavour of reducing longevity, let me know. Give me a couple of tips to offend Mianren...

Keep worries to a minimum

This is one of the seminal philosphies snoopy has ever given, don't you think? I too have a theory very similar to this - Great, I have graduated to thinking almost like a dog now!

Man, for that matter woman too, being an 'intellectual' creature - unfortunately, I may add - wants to worry. S/he wants to face challenges, wants problems to solve and that seems to be the essence of life in the world. Most of the people are fighting for their very survival and are struggling to get their couple of square meals. But, whoever is assured of these basic needs are also equally anxious till they get their few square feet to get a house etc.

In Gudalur I see the school drop outs living blissfully without worrying about higher education; but the doctors who are probably the cream of academic excellence are always worried about doing their Post Graduation and wanting to learn more. As you open a door, you see more closed doors. Wisdom.

So, the technique is to be bothered only about small issues in life, get ourselves preoccupied with basic things. Which hopefully we will be able to resolve. Not completely but to some extent. Because if we can resolve the basic problems completely, our mind will wander about bigger and more difficult problems. This way, we are busy 'tackling' important problems and are engaged always. Till time runs out.