varnam

Jhumpa Lahiri's latest short story collection, Unaccustomed Earth, has got good reviews. In this interview she shares some of her writing techniques.

Lahiri: I really can't explain how I write, or what I'm thinking of consciously. I studied literature for so long, and was taught all of these things so deeply, all too well. I was trained to read stories, and to appreciate these elements, but when I write the stories I become a different person altogether. Everything goes out the window, and nothing applies in that sense.

Before I had my first child, I took Lamaze classes. They walk you through all of the things, and the experiences, and you practice, and you learn it in a sort of theoretical way. Then I remember the actual experience of giving birth, and nothing was registering at that point, you know? [Laughter] It wasn't like at one point I could turn to my husband and say, "Oh, let's do that thing that they taught us!" It was so purely in the moment of what was happening. In a way I feel like when I write, I'm just in that moment of writing, and none of the knowledge I have is able to penetrate.[Jhumpa Lahiri ]

One of the reasons why her stories flow so well is due to a simple technique called revising.

Lahiri: That's really all I do. It's all a process for me of continued revision. I worked on most of the stories in this book for several years. When I finished some, and I published some, along the way, then I considered them done, but I still worked on them for a considerable length of time, and the ones I didn't publish, I continued to work on. Most of these stories were simmering for two to three years, minimum.[Jhumpa Lahiri ]

(Image by individuality)

When The Da Vinci Code, was released in Kerala, a state which has high Christian population, no one protested. There were long queues for the movie which according one theater owner generated interests second only to Titanic. That was not the case in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where the Government pro-actively banned the movie.

The High Courts of both states vituperated the governments.The Andhra High Court told the government that, "the constitution does not confer or tolerate such individualised hyper-sensitive private censor intrusion into and regulation of guaranteed freedom of others." The Madras High court, on similar lines, wrote, "artistic expressions may be asphyxiated by law if a petulant group of self-appointed `censors' prescribes the paradigms for suspending the screening of a film."

More opportunities for asphyxiating artistic expressions are on the way, but this time it will not be the state governments which will be acting.

In the much awaited Kamal Haasan movie, Dasavatharam, it seems there are scenes which show idols being destroyed in the clash between Shaivaites and Vaishnavites. Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Vedantam has said that such scenes hurt the sentiments of Hindus all around the world and should be removed failing which they will resort to protests.

The second protest, which might start soon, is for the new Mike Myers movie, The Love Guru. In this movie, which also stars Ben Kingsley, Jessica Alba, and Justin Timberlake, Myers spoofs an Indian Guru who returns to Canada to get into the self help business. The fight over the movie has already started in United States with Rajan Zed, the Indian priest who was heckled by Christian fundamentalists in the Senate, stating that the movie "aids in creating negative stereotypes of Hindu characters. " Deepak Chopra, the self-help guru, retaliated with a statement that anyone who opposes the movie is a fundamentalist.

Deepak Chopra is doing a cameo in the movie and has an upcoming book, Why Is God Laughing?, about comedy and religion and so has his own reasons for batting for Paramount and Mike Myers. That said, is this religion which survived Aurangzeb and Macaulay now facing the biggest threat from a Canadian comic? This Nawab of Arcot mentality will give free publicity to the movies and opportunities for violent mobs to destroy public property achieving nothing else. Movies come, go to DVD and their popularity would be fugacious, but something which has survived more than four millennia will live on.

If you are offended by these movie concepts, don't watch it. Stay at home and get offended by the IPL cheerleaders.

And if we Hindus fail to ignore such Love Gurus, we have to go back to the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita and start from scratch. Because we have not even understood the basic teachings of Hinduism.[Simply Ignore the Hollywood Movie The Love Guru and the Controversy]

As for Mr. Vedantam, there are many real temples in dilapidated state around the country hurting the sentiments of Hindus all around the world. If only he could worry about them, instead of fake idols in a movie.

Sen. John McCain on if he voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

"I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004," he said. "It's nonsense."

Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff who attended a dinner with Sen. John McCain in 2001

McCain replied that as a member of the GOP, Whitford added, he always intended to back the party's nominee. Then, the actor said, someone asked McCain whether he had cast a vote in favor of Bush.

"He put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, 'No way,'" Whitford said.

Schiff remembered the conversation the same way. "My memory was he said pretty clearly, no, he did not vote for him," he said. "I discussed it with others afterwards. It was clear to everyone he said no.

See Also: Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

After coming up with a verdict upholding freedom of speech, the Delhi High Court is now asking why the Government is just concerned with the welfare of one minority religion, ignoring the poor in other religions and the majority community.

“Is this meant to appease some community? If you intend to fight poverty, cut across religions and communities and fight. Never mind whether it is a Hindu poor or a Muslim poor,” said Justice Thakur. “The Sachar Committee report is for all. Of course, there are certain Muslim dominated areas where there is no development at all,” the ASG said.

To this, the Bench said: “So are you saying there are no Hindu slums?”

“Tell us Mr Malhotra, in our Constitutional framework, can a welfare scheme say we concentrate only on the benefit of one community and not for all?... A lot of money is spent in a welfare state, is it that you (Centre) spend it only for one minority community?” the Bench asked the ASG.[Sachar: HC asks Govt aren’t you appeasing, what about majority? (email from Nitin)]

Though the Bench did not mention the word vote bank, they made it very clear to the ASG that they have seen through him. Still the disturbing thing about this debate is that it is on religious lines. What happens to poor atheists?

(Image by Anoop HA)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. On seeing a critical edition of Mahābhārata, Dr. Arvind Sharma notes that this Western trend is an artificial concept in the Hindu context and the misguided pursuit of Western methodology has created something which never existed.

2. Anoop has great pictures and a travelogue of Keshava temple of Somnathpur which was constructed in 1268 A.D. by Somnath, a high ranking officer under the Hoysala king Narasimha III and Nanjundeshwara temple of Nanjangud.

3. Maddy has the amazing tale of John (Joao) Da Cruz, a boy from Calicut in 16th century who achieved the following: Became Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon, became a horse trader in Travancore, got St. Xavier to convert pearl collecting Paravas of Tuthukudi and finally accelerated the decline of Zamorin’s power.

4. On a trip to Kolar, the place where everyone used to go for gold, Anitha finds history.

5. Commenting on the decision by the Reserve Bank of India to launch a Sovereign Wealth Fund, Kiran gives an economic history of the European trade to India in the 16th and 17th centuries.

6. During the cold war era, Communists and various affiliated organizations used school text books and other literature to indoctrinate people. Nandakumar writes about hagiographies and various falsehoods taught as history. He also shows that various governments have blatantly pursued this path and blaming just one side for bias is not accurate.

7. Breaking News Online has a list on what they think are 25 "most" significant events in India (post-Independence).

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be published on June 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

Last month, members of DYFI and the Merchants association ransacked a Reliance retail shop in Paravur.The police did not bother to prevent this and no one was arrested. In Kerala, the politicians and business groups have decided that a consumer should buy only from shops run by them and not from supermarkets run by Reliance or Spencers.

Over the last one month I have been talking to people and visiting places to find the reasons behind the agitation against retail shops. Interestingly the retail shops targeted are all based in India (Reliance, Spencers etc.). There are two main reasons behind this agitation

1. The majority of big retail business is controlled by certain groups. They are the main people who are funding this. In Kerala if you pay money you can hire a lot of anti-social elements. It is estimated that there are 4 million unemployed youth here!

2. In many places, politicians have a stake in the local retail shops or supermarkets. They know that there substandard supermarkets cannot compete with the efficient shops run by Reliance or Spencers. [Reliance retail shop ransacked by criminals at paravur]

Thus when a Malayali goes on his mandatory exile, a place he can settle down comfortably and get the ambiance of the home state would be San Francisco. This is a place where supervisors are working on legislation to ban all chain stores

The city's restrictions on new chain stores have become increasingly tough over the past few years. In 2003, the Board of Supervisors approved a law requiring proposed coffeehouses and pharmacies to provide notice of their intent to open. That made it easier for opponents to request Planning Commission hearings and to argue against the stores.

In recent months, however, chain store owners with applications before the Planning Commission have encountered renewed hostility and skepticism. Some commissioners have stated flatly that they don't like chain stores under any circumstances. [S.F. grows ever more hostile to chain stores ]

California is going to have a major earthquake. I know this, not because the U.S. Geological Survey warned so, but because of the predictions of one John C. Hagee, the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Pastor Hagee believes that Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank do not belong to the Arabs since it was ruled by Ottoman Turks before WWI. He believes in Rapture, Second Coming of Jesus, rebirth of Israel - the usual works.

After Hurricane Katrina, in an interview with Terry Gross, he said that God had punished New Orleans for a "a level of sin that was offensive to God" because of a homosexual parade, and the tropical cyclone was proof "of the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."

When same sex marriage was legalized in New England, Rev. Hagee wrote

"Massachusetts has just agreed to recognize same-sex marriages. It will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." He also wrote: "It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. Homosexuality means the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot reproduce." [California Kicks Right-Wing Butt]

Now that the California Supreme Court has lifted the ban on same-sex marriage, Rev. Hagee might be hoping that God would unleash his retributions on the Golden State.

God did act, but it was on Rev. Hagee himself. Besides suggesting that Katrina was divine punishment for sin, he had also referred to the Catholic Church as "the great whore" and "false cult system." After an audio recording of a 1990 sermon, in which he said that God had sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land, surfaced he became a political pariah. Sen. John McCain who, as part of his right wing appeasement policy, had sought and obtained Rev. Hagee's endorsement called his comment, "crazy and unacceptable" and rejected the endorsement.

Brahman, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality, cannot laugh, but if there is a God, he definitely is laughing at Rev. Hagee.

In a column analyzing the BJP victory in Karnataka, Indian Express columnist Seema Chisthi wrote the following paragraph.

The much-Sanskritised chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who had also campaigned in Karnataka, was calmly in conversation with the TV anchor, commenting on national issues. Very difficult to engage on matters outside Gujarat usually, he signalled his stepping onto a national stage on Sunday — a Sanskritisation (a phrase coined by a Kannadiga sociologist M.N. Srinivas, incidentally) in political terms, which could have violent consequences for not just his party, but also for how politics may take shape quickly, and feverishly, before 2009.[He who holds Bangalore

Usually you see the word saffronization associated with the Hindutva folks, not Sanskritization. This word, which was used as a pejorative during the anti-Brahmin movement, is not in vogue in public commentary these days, but the revival is with mischievous intent. Narendra Modi and Sanskritization, well you get the association. Now the name of a language has become a synonym for communal politics.

In fact this attempt to brand Sanskrit as a non-secular entity happened once before, believe it or not - by the Central Board of Secondary Education. It was an attempt to pull the rug off India's cultural heritage and history by branding an entire language as not-secular.

At that time the Central Board of Secondary Education decided not to offer Sanskrit as an elective because

1. If they offered Sanskrit, they would have to offer Arabic and Persian since they were also classical languages. If Sanskrit alone was offered ignoring Arabic and Persian, then it would not be secular education, so went the reasoning.

2. If they offered Sanskrit, they would also have to offer other languages like French and German and even Lepcha.

The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict rejected the accusation that teaching Sanskrit was against secularism. To make that judgment, the Court first defined secularism as neither pro-God or anti-God, but the ability to treat devout, agnostic and atheist alike and to be neutral in religious matters. To be a secular person you don't have to reject your religious beliefs; you could deeply religious as well as secular. To illustrate the case, the Court cited two Indians - Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda - to "dispel the impression that if a person is devout Hindu or devout Muslim he ceases to be secular."

Regarding the language, the Court wrote that Sanskrit was the language in which Indian minds expressed the noblest ideas. It was also the language in which our culture, which includes the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, the teachings of Sankaracharya to Vallabhacharya and classics of Kalidasa to Banabhatta were expressed. Without understanding Sanskrit, the Court wrote, you cannot understand Indian philosophy on which our culture is based

There were two other reasons (a) Sanskrit is in the Eighth Schedule, while French, German, Arabic, Persian and Lepcha are not and (b) Article 351 of the Indian Constitution.

Now Seema Chisthi is taking us two decades back, once again to imply that Sanskrit = Communal, thus giving a language such a narrow definition that it would disconnect an ancient nation from its rich cultural heritage. Soon Sanskrit speakers, students of history, and Indian philosophy will be branded communal and the volunteers of Samskrita Bharati will be compared to Mohammed Afzal.

Lets watch to see if our eminent journalists, defenders of secularism and guardians of enlightenment pick this up.

Related Links: The Supreme Court Verdict

In “A battle about history” (Mint,23 May), T.R. Ramaswami said certain dates for the Mahabharat war were suppressed and the Pandavs and Kauravs were outsiders, and even suggested that the Mahabharat and Ramayan took place outside India. Mint has published an article by me which uses genetic evidence to claim that the Aryan Invasion, which even historians like Romila Thapar reject, did not happen.

The article is an edited version of a previous piece published here at varnam.

On the ancestry of Indian populations, research says there is no need to look beyond the borders of South Asia for the paternal heritage of a majority of Indians since the time agriculture began. Also, there is no evidence of people coming through the north-west corridor in massive numbers, indicating a South Asian origin for the Indian caste communities (and not a Central Asian one). And, there is recent shared ancestry between Central Asians and Indians, but it is explained by diffusion of Indian lineages northwards, which means some Indians went to Central Asia and got lucky.[Genetic data refutes theory]

Here are the two papers mentioned in the article

1. A prehistory of Indian Y chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios by Sanghamitra Sahoo, Anamika Singh et. al.
2. Deep common ancestry of Indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages by T. Kivisild et al.

International Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshanna Society had petitioned the Madras High Court objecting to various scenes in Kamal Haasan's Dasavatharam because it offended Hindu sentiments. The Court, as expected, dismissed the petition, citing that imaginary concerns cannot be addressed.

Describing the petitioner's claims of scenes in which Kamal Haasan allegedly steps on the 'OM' mantra and tramples on the Bhagawad Gita as "imaginary assumption of the petitioner," the Bench said the scenes were only a fiction born out of imagination.

Since the petitioners had not watched the movie their apprehension lack substance, the Bench said while dismissing the case.

The Bench also turned down the petitioner's contention that there were scenes depicting clashes between Vaishnavites and Saivites, which could lead to caste clashes, on the same ground that they had not watched the movie.['Dasavatharam': Madras HC dismisses petition]