Sanskrit – language of the divine!

It's day two of the intensive course on Sanskrit I am attending and it’s already a bit of knowledge overload on me as I am a very slow learner when it comes to languages – someone, who can well and truly be called a laggard!

Our guru is very diligent and patient as he tries his best to break the monotony that some of us find ourselves in a class of thirty comprising of pupils from practically all over the world – from the Americas to Europe and of course from across the length and breadth of India.

Per guruji, most ancient languages such as Sanksrit, Tamil, Latin, Greek, etc. are derived languages from a mother of all languages and it’s very difficult to say, which is the mother of all the world languages. Further, guruji said that as per Sri Aurobindo, old Sanskrit (language that was before the classical and epic Sanskrit in which the Ved, the Bhagwad Gita, et al were written) is also known as the “Dev Bhasha” and it is this that is the mother of all world languages – nevertheless, this is still a disputed fact.

During the course of the day, guruji explained that as opposed to most other languages of the world where passive speech is not practiced, in Sanskrit, it’s normal to have passive speech – further, he said that most of activities done by one, is described in Sanskrit as those that are done through them rather than by the person doing them. Unlike this, most other world languages maintain that it’s the individual that performs all the actions undertaken by them.

This led me to explore this a bit more. If in Sanskrit, it’s normal to have majority of sentence formations to happen in passive voice, as if the action is being performed through the person rather than by the person, then the only way this can be presumed to be true is when instead of the actual doer, that is the person performing the action, it is the divine that is conducting the activity through the person. In other words, this means that Sanskrit presumes that the divine performs all activities conducted by the humans – a fact that's also revealed in the Bhagwad Gita by Lord Krishn to Arjun. Whereas, it's just the opposite that is practiced in all other world languages where passive speech is avoided actively. This also explains, albeit empirically and am sure for some of you in lesser ways the lack of acceptance of passive voice in most other languages. Perhaps, this is the evidence which further strengthens the claim that Sanskrit's old form is the “Dev Bhasha”, language of the divine and the mother of all other world languages – a language in which the divine conversed and hence it underplayed the effect of ‘aham’ or ‘individuality’ or the ‘ego’ and rather underscored the divine force that leads us all to perform a particular action. However, with the corresponding decline of divinity in humans over the ages and with the rise of ‘aham’ or ‘individuality’ or the ‘ego’, concepts that have become the cornerstone of modern living, concepts that have become the driving force leading to thriving of newer languages all around the world – these newer languages, therefore, give more importance to the physical doer than the divine force that conducts all actions through each of us. With this paradigm shift in human outlook from divinity to ‘aham’ or ‘individuality’ or the ‘ego’, set-in rise of other world languages and the eventual decline of Sanskrit to it’s current state. Strangely, the steepest decline in Sanskrit's to it's current state of penury also occurred in the last  150-200 years in a more pronounced manner, a period when human growth and development – read as greed, ‘aham’ or ‘individuality’ or the ‘ego’ – took to newer heights or so it seems to us!

Therefore, it’s time we realize this and act earnestly to arrest any further decline of “Dev Bhasha”, Sanskrit by embracing it in each and every aspect of our lives and revive it to bring back to glory the divinity that’s dimming from our world with each passing day.

Aap…eh who?

It’s been a year since I wrote last on aap…oh, no no, not on or about you, I meant the dead, yet un-dead party called AAP. I have not got a single answer the questions last year’s piece threw up – in fact, there are more questions added to the list over the last one year, but never mind because as usual they won’t be answered! Here is the link to the last piece I wrote on AAP last year January – http://vikasmukundan.blogspot.in/2014/01/whats-cooking-aap.html and on Facebook notes: https://www.facebook.com/notes/vikas-mukundan/whats-cooking-aap/10153729338080304.

Now now, did I hear someone say how can I call it a dead, yet un-dead party? I call them this because I find it as a party that is led by a master zombie and followed by an army of zombies called the AAPtards! Why a zombie? A zombie, as we all know is a corpse revived by witchcraft and whilst it shows signs of life, it definitely is dead – this is same case with AAP, it’s master and the followers – I say so because having met these AAPtards aka zombies who conjure up newer and newer arguments to support their master zombie in whatever faux pas the master may do and, just like a zombie, they go about following the lead zombie aimlessly!

Why do they do this? Lo behold and I came across a quote from Mark Twain and everything became crystal!

Twain said and I quote, “It’s easier to fool people than convince them that they have been fooled.”

How true!!

These AAPtards aka zombies fit the bill of the protagonist in the quote so very well! I wonder how is that Twain could see the AAPtards then, more than a hundred years back?! Of course no! AAPtards and their ilk have been there always and poor Twain also had the ignominy of facing them in his time and hence these pearls of wisdom came about!

It’s well over one full year and these zombies are yet unable to break-free from the spell of their master zombie! The answer to this too is very clear from what Twain says in this one liner that is loaded with wisdom any person with little common sense can read, comprehend and act upon. Alas, as they say common sense is very uncommon and hence, people continue to deny that they have been fooled and therefore to save their embarrassment of being fooled the first time, they choose to continue being fooled forever!

Can we expect them to wake up from the zombie spell and come back and accept their situation?

The Truth of Truth!

What is truth?

From early childhood, all of us have been given sermons that we should be telling the truth always – not just this, we have also been given to understand that truth will always prevail! Now now, that’s a bit too much and am sure none of us ever got into believing it, which is why we held back the truth, gave a different version of it or let out its half-cousin, fibbed, or told a downright lie with impunity! We did this in the past and will continue doing this till we hear the sermon yet again and say, “Damn! Not again!” Have we wondered why? Am sure, no one had the time to find the truth about truth!

Yesterday, while driving from somewhere to nowhere I ‘got the time’ to think about it. A random set of thoughts bunched together at first and then they unraveled themselves bringing clarity to me though it was quite a foggy day for the road I drove on. Perhaps it being January 1^st too had a role to play in it for the thoughts to trickle in I guess or if not, maybe I can add it here just for the effect! As some of you would have seen: I have already in this paragraph held back, gave a different version or let out a half-cousin of truth – all of it with impunity! But, hang on there is some truth too sprinkled around – believe me! :)

Can we separate the two – the truth and the lie and its cousins from the above paragraph? Ok, that shouldn’t be very difficult: ‘nowhere’, ‘got the time’, ‘January 1^st for effect’ are examples of holding back, presenting a different version or the half-cousin of truth! Rest of it is truth – I swear it is! :)

Why did I hold back, present a different version or the half-cousin of truth? Is it because, it’s harmless, so, I could care less about it…or is it because it has become a habit?

Looking at the person’s life in different stages we can get some answers – as an infant, s/he requires attention so s/he fibs crying or does things – guess that’s the first lesson we get in the art and here we get caught mostly but we are loved back for it! So, it endorses our action and thus fibbing perhaps becomes engrained in us as a trait!

As we grow up, things get more complicated we hold back and let out different versions of lie just to get around in life. We do so throughout our lives from simple things such as putting on a fake smile, to put on make-up, to keep-up-to-date in fashion all to convey something we are not! Further, we do it in serious aspects of our lives such as we continue in love-less relationships and we hold back love because we worry about the world all too much saying constantly to ourselves “what will they say/ think?” making us weaker and weaker till we submit to the lie and make it our life! Much worse, we commit crimes, we steal, we stash black money, we do worse things humans can possibly do – just for the false sense of security or power or whatever we say to ourselves to convince self to tell that or live that lie!

As we can see, the dish of human life in different stages is made of holding back, giving a different version or letting out its half-cousin, fibbing, or telling a downright lie with proportions of truths depending upon our strength. Strength that has not been weaned away yet by our constant onslaught on us with “what will they say/ think?”

Clearly, we can lie to everyone but ourselves – so, we know our truth regardless and therefore it will prevail! It need not prevail on the world – it will prevail on us eventually! And that’s the truth! There is nowhere we can hide from it while we may hide it from every one around us. Now, we know that truth will always prevail, don’t we?

Then why?

They say, saying the truth is liberating? It is! How true! Lets just try making a small beginning this New Year – added for effect :) – say a truth to yourself first than anyone else, you will feel lighter.

Just say it and you’ll know what I mean!

India has decided...

India has decided..and what a resounding decision it has been!

She has decided to answer those who thought they were bigger than her...

She has decided to answer her detractors that when the time comes, she can be ruthless with people who mess with her...

She has decided to answer everyone who mistook her patience for her weakness...

She has decided to answer those who took her for granted and took her and her citizens for a ride..

She has decided to answer that when time comes, it's she who'll prevail and it's she who'd provide succor to its maimed citizens...

She has decided to answer to its citizens that however despairing the times may be, there is always light at the end of the tunnel..

So, ye all who messed with her and who still wish to mess with her, beware...she's generally forgiving and always gives a long rope so that in the end you'll tie yourselves in knots as you did this time..

What an answer it's been...

Where to now, India?

On the night of May 15, 2014, as we all in the country are drowned in the media frenzy around exit poll results of the largest democratic exercise, the world witnessed over the last one month and with a day away from the actual results, the expectations of a nation are running high…

The fact that over half a billion people exercised their democratic right says a lot about the expectations this celebration of democracy carried! And these half a billion people, 540.83 million to be precise, a record of sorts (even above what was witnessed in 1984), are waiting with bated breath the outcome on May 16^th. And whilst exit polls clearly show that the BJP and NDA emerging as a single largest group with seats tally anywhere between 249 and 340, the anxiety is palpable! I being a supporter of Modi, am pleased with the projections of exit polls and hope they translate into real results on the 16^th with the NDA emerging victorious with a clear majority.

However, this is not what I want to talk about here – what’s equally interesting is that whilst BJP and NDA is expected to cross the half-way mark with a 272+ seat verdict, from one of the exit poll predictions, it is seen that BJP polled only 35% of the cast votes and other national parties such as the Congress polled around 25% and the new entrant AAP (if we can call it a national outfit), polled about 3%, making it only about 63% of the overall votes cast for national parties – the remaining 37% went to parties who are regional – making regional parties the single largest block to which India voted. And to this, if were to add the India that did not cast its vote in the last one month, then, the picture is even more dismal pegging BJP at a dismal 23%, Congress at 17% and AAP at 2% and thereby the reducing the national parties to a measly 42% vote share and thereby pegging the regional parties at a significant 58% vote share – this of course rides on a big assumption that the people who did not vote during humanity’s biggest festival of democracy are those people who did not believe in the process or were disillusioned with the candidates on offer and hence would have pressed NOTA on EVMs. Regardless, that’s a minor thing as what’s important is that the regional parties are the single largest voted block across India. What it further means is that even though BJP-NDA shall emerge as the largest party with clear majority in Parliament, it enjoys confidence of only 35% of Indians who voted – the remaining 65% Indians voted against this would-be government. And, even though this is not a new thing and has been the story of almost all elections in the country for the last many decades now, it shows the extremely fractured nature of this mandate.

What does this mean?

Is this the manifestation of the fact that we are more a nation of debaters and lesser of doers? Or, is this the manifestation of the fact that we are a nation that’s busy mostly trying to pull down the other person than helping him or her reach their goal and thereby collectively we all reaching ours? Or, is this the manifestation of the fact that we are a nation full of argumentative people and less of reconcilers and healers? Or, is it the manifestation of a nation that is brimming with regionalism and subdued nationalism? Or, is it a manifestation of all these?

Whatever, this may mean, it’s clear that it’s not good for the nation – not that I am saying we should not have some of these traits as a citizen of this great nation, we should – but, in measures that bring out our richness as a nation and not beyond such that it hampers our oneness and compromises our strength and growth.

So, more than ever, its now that we need to build the bridges between these chasms among us as a nation and connect the 35% with the 25% with the 2% with the 37% into one seamless nation. And, I am sure Modi will help achieve this when he says that he wants to take every one together in the collective act of nation building. And if as a leader, he sets an example for citizens to follow, we all can help and contribute in making an India which debates passionately, yet believes in doing and does; an India where people support the other to achieve their goal and overall greater collective goal; an India where reconcilers and healers outnumber the argumentative and finally an India where nationalism overwhelms regionalism, yet maintaining our cherished diversity! Amen!

What’s cooking AAP?

I must put a few things in perspective upfront – I have participated in Anna’s anti-corruption movement in 2011 and was inspired by the idealism it espoused and have attended the walks to India Gate, meetings in Jantar Mantar and Ram Lila maidan over half-a-dozen times.

However, since the split of Anna’s movement and the formation of a political front by Kejriwal to the current situation in Delhi’s political theater as well as AAP’s national aspirations, the above question has intrigued me – and since AAP started cooking its dishes earnestly in Delhi since Dec 28^th, it’s "aroma" has reached far and wide and traveled to me too for me to take stock of what’s actually cooking with AAP.

Since the last three weeks or so, there is new dish being served to aam-aadmi of Delhi and also to the nation by AAP ministers and leaders almost on a daily basis – sometimes it’s the “Kejriwal’s U-turn specials” or sometimes it’s “Somnath’s ‘spicy’ histrionics and moronics” or sometimes “Vishwas’ kaali-peeli sabzi” and now “Kejriwal’s anarchist pulao” – each more mouth-watering and delectable than the other!

Of the above delectable dishes,“Kejriwal’s U-turn special” is comparable to the mouth-watering dum-dishes (of dum-aloo, dum-biryani fame) that are cooked over long periods to bring out food's flavors to the fullest and Kejriwal has perfected this art in a way only he could have done – here are some of my hot finger-licking “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” favorites:

• In November 2010 Kejriwal created a potent recipe of this dish when he claimed that he had 370 pages of ‘proof’ on Sheila Dixit government, which per him was enough for filing an FIR against Sheila government but after assuming office on Dec 28^th, Kejriwal served his “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” by asking BJP’s Harsh Vadhan to produce the proof and then he’ll take action against Sheila Dixit government in just two hours!
• During campaigning for Delhi assembly elections Kejriwal said he’d never take support nor give support to form a government either with Congress or the BJP. However, on Dec 28^th, he again served “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” and accepted “out-side” support of Congress (whom they fought a bitter election with) to form his government.
• In 2011,Kejriwal when under Anna’s “tutelage” claimed that he’d never join politics and hold any post and then, Kejriwal used the momentum of Anna movement to launch his political party and finally grab power in Delhi, all in a matter of three years thereby serving “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” yet again!
• Before elections, he said that an elected representative will continue staying where he was staying before the elections were held and after winning too he would stay at the same place and then when he was being allotted the aam-aadmi 9,000 sq. ft. double-duplex house in central Delhi’s posh locality (far away from the suburbs where he stays), he claimed this residence was identified by the Delhi government, which he seems to have forgotten was run by him only and hence he served “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” yet again! Maybe, he’ll soon sit on a dharna against himself for such ridiculous U-turns!

For those would like detailed instructions on this delectable Kejriwal dish, “Kejriwal’s U-turn specials”, please see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nxqTMgxXPk

Then comes the hot-headed Somnath Bharti’s “Somnath’s ‘spicy’ histrionics and moronics” – and this is equally delectable as “Kejriwal’s U-turn specials” but a lot more hot & spicy, hence, the aam-aadmi trying his hand or shall I say stomach with this, needs to be a bit careful as it sometimes can lead to indigestion, nausea and loosies too just as Bharti’s loose talks and moronic comments and actions. Some of the hottest “Somnath’s ‘spicy’ histrionics and moronics” include the following:

• His actions to try and force police to act against certain African residents in his constituency as he suspected them to be running a drug and prostitution ring.
• His gross indiscretion where even though being a law minister, he broke law by naming the Danish rape victim to media – even though this is illegal, Kejriwal did not sit-in dharna against his own minister and instead sat on a dharna to support him!
• His foot-in-mouth habit of spewing racist slurs on the African people living in his constituency and also swearing choicest of slurs on his political and professional peers (Arun Jaitley and Harish Salve respectively).

It is also equally interesting to note that a global spamming watchdog, Spamhaus had in 2005 included the name of Somnath Bharti as among the top 200 spammers in the world and among the three distinguished spammers of India who made to that list! Please see details on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath_Bharti) and on PC Quest (http://www.pcquest.com/pcquest/news/176888/top-spammer). Perhaps that’s how he got groomed to be so loose with words and actions, making his recipes equally rancid – therefore, the aam-aadmi is well advised to exercise caution while eating these!

Then there is the eloquent-with-Hindi, Kumar Vishwas – the challenger of Rahul baba in Amethi with his most ‘spicy’ “Vishwas’ kaali-peeli sabzi.” Having seen his description of nurses from Kerala, one wonders how a sexist person like him and one who behaved like a pervert while sharing those views in public got a place within AAP in the first place – or perhaps, this recipe i.e. “Vishwas’ kaali-peeli sabzi” was his qualification to join AAP, as can be seen from Kejriwal’s and Bharti’s delectable recipes that made them so famous! For those would like detailed instructions on this acerbic dish, “Vishwas’ kaali-peeli sabzi”, please see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngpB_85XZyc. Perhaps, it’s with this recipe in their arsenal, AAP plans to stop crime against women in Delhi and all the way up to Amethi!

And finally, off late, Kejriwal seems to be in a hurry and is forgetting the importance of dum in his special dish and is not applying this technique to the fullest in his recipe, “Kejriwal’s U-turn special” – as you would have noticed with just-ended dharna in Delhi where he threatened to sit-in for 10 days, disrupt the republic day parade and be an anarchist and till yesterday morning claimed that there won’t be any half-measures or climb-down in their demands and therefore the dharna would continue till all their demands were met by the central government just to later on climb down and call off the dharna, the same evening on just the assurances of the Governor for a probe and also sending off two policemen on a short paid-leave! Perhaps, Kejriwal needs sound advice from other members of his party so that he maintains the authenticity and consistency of his cuisine! Or maybe, this is his idea of fast food! For those would like to see the detailed instructions on fast food version of “Kejriwal’s U-turn specials” added to AAP’s menu as “Kejriwal’s anarchist pulao”, please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJzNDKcVgs

So, as we can see, AAP is offering the aam-aadmi a diverse menu of delectable dishes to choose from – though the aam-aadmi needs to be prepared to protect his tummy as AAP won’t come to his rescue as they are currently and will continue to be very busy only serving these mouth-watering dishes and not worrying about the consequences of consumption of these dishes on the aam-aadmi!

However, the question that still remains is, “what’s cooking AAP?” – looks like that AAP has too many cooks and as we know, too many cooks end up spoiling the broth! But is AAP even bothered about the broth? Or is it cooking a secret dish using a secret recipe provided by the Congress party and the aam-aadmi is oblivious of the same?

AAP should know that forging a relationship with Congress to form a government with outside support has led the AAP to a point where aam-aadmi is rightly saying, “you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” and the aam-aadmi has rightly re-christened AAP to Con-AAP (after their marriage with Congress) and soon the aam-aadmi will ask AAP, AAP-Con (आप कौन)? :)

A bath, forty winks and lessons for life in a village!

I had been to Thawar, a laid-back village 40kms from Lucknow many a time by now, but this trip was different. For one, I was going to stay at Thawar unlike all other times when I had stayed mostly at Lucknow and made day trips to Thawar and back or the one time when I stayed at the office we have at the closest block, Maal, 7 kms away from Thawar.

For obvious reasons, I was excited at the prospect of staying in the village – it would be my first stay in a village after I moved into this space early in 2011. However, there was a side of me that was a bit ticklish of how it would turn out to be in reality. Whilst the idea of a village stay sounded really romantic, however, the reality of it was about to knock my doors soon! 

A sultry ride from the Lucknow airport to Thawar in a village van which included among other uninteresting things made so by the unlikely hot weather of July, a traffic hold up at a railway crossing and a bottle full of sweat leaked by my body that made me look like someone who decided to take sauna bath with full clothes on! At this point, the first realization dawned on me that I, like many other urban dwellers is so used to an air conditioner in a car that lack of it makes me among other funny things, sweat like a pig...so much for urban living and saying that we have progressed not noticing that we have actually de-evolved instead of having evolved for good – consider this fact that we never had air conditioners at our homes when we were kids and we were perfectly alright with it then, to this species now, that leaks oodles of sweat without fail when an air conditioner is not around is certainly a sign of reverse evolution! And, I for one am a perfect specimen of this de-evolution...and unfortunately am not in minority!

After a less than average journey to Thawar, we thankfully had very fruitful meetings at the village with the entrepreneurs who continue to provide the beacon of inspiration to all new and upcoming entrepreneurs on whom the model village project is hinging its hope on. By the time, we finished the last meeting, it was late afternoon and we decided to wind our way back to the Dhruv Tara Kendra (an apt name for our office in Thawar) that has been the nerve centre for discussions, deliberations, meetings and countless training sessions for entrepreneurs and community alike.

It was late evening by the time we decided to call it a day and someone back in the electricity distribution office someplace else too decided to call it a day for us and we were suddenly plunged into darkness in the village. In fact, it was quite nice for a while as we watched the last few rays of the sun disappear beneath the horizon leaving behind a spectacular color play in the sky. With sun down, I thought the mosquitoes would get into the act as they had done in the past, but I was surprised by their understated presence this time around. Nevertheless, I was not too worried about the mosquitoes as much but the heat as that had been the overarching theme of the day so far. In fact, I had hoped that the heat would become bearable later in the evening and the night, as there would hopefully be some breeze to cool the harried nerves. Unfortunately, that did not happen and there was not a spot of breeze anywhere and the heat continued its reign unabated -- the only consolation was that the moon shone bright and one could see well without electricity. So, by the time we closed the DTK for the day, I had only one wish which was to have a long cold shower to wash off the layers of dried sweat accumulated on me through the day. Shower? Did I say shower? Suddenly, I was brought to ground from my mundane urban fixations once again...where was I to get a shower in the village? With such longing thoughts I climbed on the motorcycle of our community mobilizer and rode pillion with him to the place that was to be my host for the night.

After a short ride, I was at the unused house of the ex-pradhan of Thawar – the house was a really old one made of mud, wood and tin, each in good measure. The walls were made of mud and were about four feet thick and there were no doors to the house showing that mutual trust was commonplace attribute among communities back then than it is now...another sign of de-evolution? The building’s main entrance had large arches and then we entered a large lobby followed by a huge room where it is said durbars were held by the forefathers of ex-pradhan to judge disputes that arose within the village folk as well as to hear their grievances. 

This brought forward another aspect of village life that is generally overlooked by us urban know-all jackasses! How much simpler life institutions were then and to our ‘credit’ we have successfully managed to complicate them now, and how! Earlier during the day in the village, I had seen minimal or no security measures in most of the houses we had visited – the doors were either not there in old constructions or were left ajar for all and sundry to enter your house. You practically knew everyone in the village and therefore there was a feeling of a close knit community whereas in cities we hardly even know our next door neighbors, leave the community for someone else’s knowing and the doors are tightly shut and locked up with multiple locks...and for mending our disputes with another member of the community we go to the police, and then to a district court, and then to the high court and if we don't like that judgment too, we finally go to the supreme court where after in the event of not being satisfied still, we either sulk or take matters into our own hands! Unfortunately, with urban living becoming an assumed and erroneous benchmark, the village folk are being seduced to adopt everything urban with television and other sources presenting a titillating account of urban life and the village folk are lapping it up wholesale and the results are there for all to see – pucca houses replacing traditional houses with strong door and multiple locks replacing no-doors, reliance on the courts than the panchayat's time tested dispute redressal mechanism that was equally effective and finally general degradation of community living with which the village folk lived for centuries and the ever increasing crime rates!

Getting back to the stay at ex-pradhan's ex-house in the village – on arrival, the only thought I had in mind was to take a shower, ahem! I mean a good old fashioned bath which in my imagination would include going to a bathroom and dunking water on self using a mug from a bucket and washing self with soap and coming out clean. Since there was no light, we had a torch to look around and saw that there were two men on sitting on a charpai, a four legged village cot made of jute and wood – they were the caretakers of the place and seem to be enjoying a beedi, a cottage industry made tobacco smoke between them. I asked my colleague from the village where I could take a bath and he nonchalantly pointed the torch to a place and I looked on with hope only to find a one foot tall and four foot a side square platform next to the well and I was frozen for a moment which appeared rather long and I was wondering how I was going to take bath on an open platform like that in view of the three men sitting on the charpai...obviously that thought never crossed their minds as they did this and saw it every day and there wasn't much to look at anyways when I would do the act! So, why was I hesitant? Again, it was de-evolution of the species I belonged to that had certain preconceived notions that made me reticent. Nevertheless, it took me a while to decide how to go about it – after some scouting I noticed a wire tied on one side of the platform, which by now had a name in my mind, the Performance Platform! I realized that if I were to place my towel on the wire in a particular manner it would partially block the view of the audience...so I did that whilst the audience continued to look on wondering as to why I was taking such a long time with an activity that was so mundane and my colleague continued pointing the torch on me and the platform in order to help with find my bearings much to my irritation as if I was doing a performance with the spotlight on me! So, I told him that I did not need the spotlight aka torch on me and seeing my discomfiture he quickly switched it off and for a moment I was relieved albeit only for one moment and soon I realized that it was a full moon night for which only a while ago I was all too happy only to wish otherwise now! I decided to act now as otherwise the audience that was passive so far would become active wondering what I was unto and in that moment thousands of thoughts crossed my mind and one that was helpful was a scene I had seen in old Hindi movies that depicted village life and bathing rituals of men by the house well and I knew what to do...the key was not to fully undress but to keep your loins on and get on with the act! I did exactly that and viola I was well into the act and the water from well was cold and refreshing that not just cleaned my body of the dirt but also soothed my soul – for that moment I ignored the situation I was in and loved the bath for the first time since it began. And I think I heard a palpable sigh of relief from the audience as well! Now that I was well into the act, I realized that I did not carry soap with me and could not find any around as well and decided to just scrub myself with my hands. After it, I was as fresh as could be but somewhere inside, my bath was not complete, as I had not used soap and other things I am used to using during the bath. 

After the bath, I had a sumptuous dinner at village colleague’s house and then decided to call it a day – though I wanted to see the night sky as without electricity I had hoped to see the real night sky, which we normally miss out in cities with all the illumination pollution. However, with the moon shining brightly in full splendor, I could hardly see anything else, so, decided to retire for a day. As there was no electricity and no breeze to help, I slept outside for a while under the sky! Though it was sweltering hot, I was quite excited about it but the excitement didn't last long – the heat and mosquitoes were joined in by bed bugs and I was in much trouble and just then my luck turned around for good and electricity came back and I decided to go inside to sleep in front of a pedestal fan that growled like a jet engine but then the choice was between heat with mosquitoes and the sound of the jet engine and I decided for the latter! Well into the night, I realized it wasn't any better with the fan too as the bed bugs had followed me inside too and were now feasting on my feet. Nevertheless, I carried on through the night and got the proverbial forty winks of sleep and got up groggy, albeit early before sunrise which I normally don't do back home. Walking out of the building into the courtyard I got a whiff of fresh breeze and felt awake and refreshed. The two caretakers were already up and about – they had slept in the courtyard under the sky and they looked much fresher than me. I guess that the heat, the mosquitoes and the bed bugs did not bother them much and I remembered the fact from the previous day about my de-evolution as a human being as the potential reason for differences in our states. I also realized that I need to take bath again and this time I had to find the soap – so, I asked my colleague for it and he told me it was there by the platform. I was still hesitant to use a used soap, but then I knew soap was a disinfectant and therefore I could use it without much trouble. I decided to carry on with my morning ablutions and went on to the Performance Platform albeit this time around I was quite confident on putting up a good performance! I reached there and started with the task at hand and was looking around for that soap that my colleague had mentioned by the side of the platform but couldn't see any except a worn out detergent bar – so, half way through the bath, I called out to my colleague who was sitting by the charpai quite ignorant of my act asking him for the soap and he pointed me in the direction where I didn't want it to be – the used detergent bar! I guess detergent too is a soap just that it is used to wash clothes and it too is a cleanser and a disinfectant – only that it would be only a bit harder on the skin! A bit bewildered, I again had a thousand thoughts in my mind, just that this time, I could only remember only a jingle from an old ad from yesteryears of a soap bar of called 'OK', which went with a tag line, 'OK – nahane ka bada sabun' meaning, ‘OK – a big bathing soap’, but that was still a bathing soap and not a detergent bar! Among these thoughts, I went ahead with the scrappy detergent bar and took my 'complete' bath for the first time in the village. Strangely, I did not find any difference in freshness after this bath than after the bath I had the previous night, just that this time, I felt my skin to be stretched a bit after detergent’s action. Clearly, the difference was all in the mind and I was perhaps as clean both the times just that with the detergent, more bacteria got killed whereas at the same time I was perhaps compromising on my body's ability to build immunity to these bacteria!

After the act for the second time on the Performance Platform, another realization dawned on me that the bath I took last night was not the act but the real bath and the thing we did back home can actually be called the act, isn't it? A simple thing of taking bath has been artificially made complicated by our fertile imagination which now supports multiple industries for things ranging from bathrooms requiring tiles, marble slabs, a whole range of bath fittings and the countless bathing products from soaps, gels, shampoos and what not. For heavens sake, it is just a bath!

What I was realizing from the summation of all the small experiences since the time I arrived at the village and the stay over night was that we urban folks have managed to complicate every single and really simple aspects of our lives. The range and depth of this mess is mind-boggling that spreads from how we lead our lives in the society with members of the community we live with on one end to how we lead the life with our own private selves in our bedrooms, bathrooms and on the streets! And in each of these simple aspects we have spawned complicated systems and product producing industries. For the society, we have created a complicated legal and administrative system to help regulate a simple thing like life whereas we could do with little or no or at best self-regulation which is very much there in our villages. On the other hand, for self, we have set up a range of industries that cater to ever-increasing wants that were created from the simple needs we had. The need was bath and we created a complicated range of wants that spawned an industry as mentioned before. The need was sleep, and here again we did the same and created and still continue to create unwanted wants and the industries to cater to these wants.

The list of our needs is finite but we in our infinite wisdom have created countless wants and are still not relenting. Thankfully, in our infinite wisdom also know that this cannot go on forever – Mahatma Gandhi had said so rightly several decades ago that, "this earth can support everyone's need but not everyone's greed" and our villages still reflect this statement beautifully though we are gradually eating away at these very values they stand for. Nature does not support evolution in the reverse and if we push in that direction mindlessly, then, we will sooner than later reach a point of no return. 

So, are we willing to learn?