Dear all

 It is the festival of Onam today which is celebrated with pomp and show in the tiny state of Kerala where I belong to.

 It is a day when the legendary king Mahabali visits his Kingdom to see his people and their prosperity . The legend says that the King  Mahabali was ruling the then Kerala with a sense of egalitarianism and the people were prosperous and Happy . Mahabali  was from the asura race and the rival deva king  Indra   felt jealous and threatened of mahabali  and complained to Lord Vishnu  as like in any modern day politics. Vishnubhagvan  then takes  the form of a dwarf Brahmin who seeking alms comes to the court of King Mahabali and demands land measuring three times his feet which the king happily agreed. However the dwarf suddenly transforms into an elephantine figure and the whole kingdom is measured in just two giant feet forcing the king to give his head to measure as the third feet, thereby making  Vishnu  pushing him down the earth to the mythological dark world  called paathal . The humble king then seeks Vishnu’s permission to come and visit his kingdom once a year which is celebrated by Keralites  as Onam.

Historical records of the Sangam period shows that the Chera kings in the early part of the Christian Era celebrated Onam. There is also records of celebration, on the starting of the harvest in the then Kerala region  . As you are aware each regions of India had its climatic variations which made harvesting possible at different times .In Kerala when the Sun crosses the zodiac sign Leo (Singham  Rashi which was pronounced  as Chingam in Kerala, the equivalent of the Shravan season in North-Western India.) the first round of rains stops for the farmers to sow their seeds in the field which is the genesis of the celebration and festival.

The legend of Mahabali and the fifth avatar of Vishnu pushing him down to a mythological  KalaPani Called Pathaal- on the instigation of Indra  who feared for his position due to Mahabali’s pious ruling – are all fictitious mythology added later by the immigrant Brahmanic priests .  The arrival of Monsoon and the three months of torrential rains in the plains of Kerala makes the red soil, fertile enough, for the then agricultural economy to strive which resulted in ecstasy and joy to the settlers celebrated by a pompous meal called Sadya with local delicacies and people playing various games like Pulikali (called tiger dance  ritual dance mainly done by painting vermillion over the body and imitating a tiger ) and women playing  the Thiruvathirakali , ( a circular and rhythmic,  slow bottom gyrating dance )

 I remember my child hood times plucking flowers and decorating them as a pookalam . This was followed by play and fun with friends and still as an adult I have a lot of good memories of childhood associated to Onam.

Unfortunately Onam of today is like an oxymoron with a barren Kerala without fields and all vegetables and other consumable coming from other states mainly from Tamilnadu. The men instead of playing  pulikali  , effeminate as they are , will be waiting in front of the government liquor shops (making  the government of Kerala a richer  300 crore every year) , drinking the whole day and beating their wives while women glued to TV watching some molliwood  crap  . The agrarian economy is replaced by a money order economy with 30-40% of people migrated out for work  (I am one among those hapless) and still with a 8-10% urban unemployment rate. The inter communal harmony has collapsed with undercurrents of talibanisation of the society with a cocktail mix of crime, politics and worklessness.  

Good or bad Facebook has made Onam celebrations virtual with youngsters wishing through the social media with no personal contact witheach other  .

As a malayallee when i become nostalgic of my childhood onam days  , I hope mahabali is now seeing facebook in his lapto sitting in pataal clicking ‘’like”’ to the wishes of his country men.

Happy Onam to all of you

Dear all

Let us all remember Niel Armstrong who is no more. He has left an incredible mark in human history. Today when we think of sending a person to mars , his name lives in posterity

sanyasi

Dear all

The 65^th independence day was celebrated with the  Prime minister making some speech on reviving the economy, sending a mission to moon , eradicating poverty, bla bla. At least I was relieved that this man at least spoke on something even though it was from hava. It is a fact that this government has utterly failed not just in bringing in a policy leadership but mainly in creating a lack of  confidence among  our citizens. The two scams namely Telecom and the commonwealth games gotala , the backtracking on FDI in retail, a belligerent budget all added to the  inability of the economic crisis managers in North block has now made us look at this government as a meek and lifeless entity. The violence in Assam is the latest case in point where it  was an eruption of an ongoing tension between the bodos and the immigrant muslims, which as per the media reports could have been prevented if the government was proactive. The weak response to the issues on corruption, black money etc have all make us look that what has independence brouhaha to do, if we have a lame duck government.

Anyway Rashtrapati bhavan is hosting a grand dinner today called Come Home, to celebrate the state of affairs. Wait for an invitation:

Jai Hind

Dear readers

History as a discipline hitherto was neglected even though the study of history created a tunnelling effect in reconnecting to our past and understanding the way we think and act today. The emergence of vocational based education giving credence to technical and commercial skill camouflaged the importance of the social sciences in the early period  of globalization. However social analytics is back on stage again due to the ill effect of globalization with human lives taking a market driven roller coaster ride with rise of inequality particularly in the emerging economies of India and China. The study of history has a discipline always analysed the development of societies and social progress based on the background of historical events and derived conclusions for a better tomorrow. These studies were based on traditional sources of learning like interpreting an old insignia , or from reading an inscription or book etc and concluding ones own analysis of the same. These analysis often had a flavour of the analysers prejudices to the event or was based on what he saw in his kaleidoscope of facts. Hence we have various version of the same event. For example the first independence war of 1857 is not a national uprising as far as western and non nationalistic historians are concerned where they call it a local mutiny by the sepoys. However nationalistic historians view this as the emergence of a proto nationalism. Similarly Aryans were emigrants and was in conflict with natives as far as traditional historians are concerned while ultranationalists believe that Aryans are an indigenous race. These dichotomies always intrigued the student and it could be seen that polarization of historical interpretation has now taken a left-right divergence and spread across universities in india.

The development of the discipline of Oral history in the western world has to be analysed in the background of these developments where historian interviewed the affected people and concluded rather than his own personalized interpretation. It is indeed the development and practice of this discipline that helped western historians to interview the holocaust victims and derive the real story behind those deadly days, rather than depending on any fascist or Fabien literature.

In India application of oral history has now been initiated by a US based NGO named Arise Free India and their representatives have been documenting the testimonies of freedom fighters in India in understanding the political scenario of pre independent India. This has given insights into many path breaking interpretations where the stereotype of ‘’glorification” of our national leaders are challenged. The technological developments in archiving has now made it possible for the historian to interview and document the contemporary events to posterity without prejudice .

In this background it is worth reading the book published by dodgears and authored by the Baroda based historian Dr Sujata Menon an encrypt of which is pasted below for my readers

Sanyasi