Land of Lime

When there is democracy in poll booth, why does it not exist in political parties?

Of all the people, when Rahul Gandhi asks this question, should we laugh or cry? If he is being sincere, then Rahul is only demonstrating his ignorance and lack of intelligence. But then his father too delivered a famous speech in the 1985 Congress centenary celebrations in Bombay decrying corruption.
Still as questions go, this is an easy one to answer.

But who will tell Rahul Gandhi that the Nehru-Gandhi family is primarily responsible for the death of intra-party democracy in Congress, which has proven to be the paradigm for all the other political parties.

Funny. If only Congress had enough democracy to allow its leader to be told that his family is responsible for some of the ills that the party and the nation suffer from!

I like a good conference as much as anyone else. But reading this report (entitled ‘R.K.Narayan’s concern for Children recalled‘) in The Hindu today, I couldn’t help but be snarky.

R.K. Narayan’s insight into a children’s world and his concern for their emotional sensitivity came under focus at the inaugural session of the three-day national seminar on the late novelist organised by the Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Mysore, on Tuesday.

This is indeed true, and the subject is worthy of a lecture by a sensitive reader of Narayan’s novels. The students and faculty members of the Regional Institute of Education (RIE) in Mysore ought to spend an evening discussing these matters. But a three day national seminar? What will they discuss?

The seminar is expected to discuss the following themes — Child and Family in R K Narayan’s work; Depiction and treatment of child and family in the context of Indian culture and way of life in the writings of R K Narayan; Narayan’s ideas and concern for children and childhood; R K Narayan: The Man and his life.

There you go!

Narayan is a great writer but an educationist, he is not.

And these guys are in charge of educating our children!

I am already sleeping better.

Watching Ashes live in England:
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David Hopps writes in the Guardian on the pleasures of watching Ashes from midnight to morning. Here is one juicy bit on reinvigorating oneself with a ‘power walk’ during the tea break.

4.30am: As part of the pre-Test hype, Sky TV paraded its own Ashes medical adviser, who suggested that the tea interval was the time to take a power walk to keep energy levels high. Is he kidding? The rain is throwing down. Anyway, you can’t power-walk around a village at this time of night. If you are under 30, someone will call the police, and if you’re any older you will be heralded as the local eccentric. Or, even worse, you could stride around the first corner and be met by a group of power-walkers chatting about the cricket. “Just getting a breather - what’s got into that Harmison?”

Laughing Politics:
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If you are tired of all the punditry on Democracy at work in America circa 2006, here is an entertaining musical: Greatest Hits of Election 2006 - an animated cartoon by Walter Handelsman. I assure you. You will not hear about America’s yearning for centrism, the victory of pragmatism over ideological extremes, so on and so forth. Enjoy.
Also this roundup of recent political cartoons by Bob Geiger will make you laugh. Or not.

The 16th century devotional poet, Purandara Dasa, sang:

Nageyu barutide enage nageyu barutide
jagadoLiruva manujarella
hagaraNa maaDuvuda ka.nDu.

Seeing the pandemonium
men in this world cause,
I laugh, I laugh.

Not me though, not after:

OJ returns to the oblivion:
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There was nothing funny about the now canceled OJ special - both the TV show and the book deal. It’s sad that the weight of American society was necessary for Rupertji to realize what an evil idea this was. Or was it the pressure of advertisers, Fox commentators (for once) and thirteen affiliates? I am sure Eugene Robinson’s powerful critique (Blood Money) alone wasn’t adequate! Hey, we will take it, however it happened.

Seriously folks, if a TV show has a line which requires the audience to have read a book, any book, even the bible, then it is unlikely to be a hit. See the response to Studio 60 on NBC.

Renaming Hunger:
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But we need to laugh at something right? How about this US Dept of Agriculture Sociologist, Mark Nord, who says:

hunger is clearly an important issue but lacking a widespread consensus on what the word ‘hunger’ should refer to, it’s difficult for research to shed meaningful light on it.

Well, I kinda thought hunger is this sensation that we all feel every now and then. We eat if we have food. We remain hungry, if we don’t have no food. For more read Elizabeth Williamson’s report (Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA won’t Call Them Hungry) and OPED (Ending Hunger) in the Washington Post but I have some excerpts here.

What’s actually funny is the social scientist in me gets what Mr. Nord is suggesting.

In assembling its report, the USDA divides Americans into groups with “food security” and those with “food insecurity,” who cannot always afford to keep food on the table. Under the old lexicon, that group — 11 percent of American households last year — was categorized into “food insecurity without hunger,” meaning people who ate, though sometimes not well, and “food insecurity with hunger,” for those who sometimes had no food.

That last group now forms the category “very low food security,” described as experiencing “multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.” Slightly better-off people who aren’t always sure where their next meal is coming from are labeled “low food security.”

The imprecision in defining our categories is not to be taken lightly. But the question is will the USDA take seriously the elimination of hunger?

Among several recommendations, the panel suggested that the USDA scrap the word hunger, which “should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation.”

To measure hunger, the USDA determined, the government would have to ask individual people whether “lack of eating led to these more severe conditions,” as opposed to asking who can afford to keep food in the house, Nord said.

USDA will not measure individual hunger anymore. I say this fits in with the priority of our times. When our cherished way of life itself is under grave threat from freedom haters, food security isn’t what we need to worry about. 96% of over 11 million hungry people don’t have enough money to buy food. Well, polls don’t reflect the reality, especially when we can change the reality. Just ask our Optimist-in-chief! How can there be that many hungry people in this greatest country on earth?

Wodeyar’s communions:
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This one actually requires a full fledged entry on a curse on the Wodeyar family, the rulers of Mysore but for the time being this Wikipedia story (scroll down the story for the section on curse) will have to suffice. Sometime in the 17th century, Raja Wodeyar coveted a beautiful, virtuous, married woman Alamelamma. As his soldiers pursued her, Alamelamma put the following curse:

Talakadu maralagali, Malingi maduvagali, Mysore arasarige makkalagadirali
May Talkad turn into sand, may Malingi turn into a whirlpool and may the kings of Mysore not have children.

Truth be told, Mysore kings have had problems begetting sons and producing heirs. So My favorite prince in the whole wide world, Srikantha Datta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, had this to say on his family’s misfortune. Read the DH story for more details:

The curse of Talakad on the royal family of Mysore seems to be slowly wearing off as I am now in direct communion with the soul of Alamelamma, the woman who had uttered the curse, nearly 400 years ago.

Spot on, dude!

I am glad you are in communion with someone, even if it is with a long dead woman.

How about communioning with us, your former and future constituents?

Cubs sign Soriano!
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Cubs reportedly gave an eight year, $136 million dollar contract to Alfonso Soriano. Now that’s funny.