What Has Happened To Spoken Tamil?

I speak a few languages, some pretty well, some passably well. Of these languages Tamil has intrigued me quite a bit. Tamil is a language rich in literature but not very easy to learn/speak.. Thirukkural, a set of 1330 poems each 2 lines long, was written 2000 years back. While I have little interest generally in poems, I have been a fan of Thirukkural from my school days. I still remember a few Thirukkural poems from my school days.

Even 30-40 years back, Tamil used to be a strange language. The spoken version and the written version were quite different. This is quite unlike other languages where the two are similar. Let me explain this. Have you heard a news broadcast in English (which will be similar to written English and formal) ? Can you find people who speak the same way? I would say yes. While there are a lot of people who speak poor English, we would be able to find many people who speak good (almost formal) English. I know the same to be true of couple of other languages as well.

But when it comes to Tamil, what we speak and what we write (or hear in news broadcast) are very different and very unrelated. Speaking Tamil the way it is written would sound comic these days. And I would cringe writing Tamil the way it is spoken now. Tamil has certain letters that are unique and these are pronounced in a particular way. The pronunciation of these special letters even in news broadcasts these days is appalling.

The question that comes to my mind is: what caused Tamil to be so violated? Why is there such a dichotomy between the formal language and the spoken language (spoken anywhere)? I don’t yet have an answer for this. Maybe one day I will find out.

Old Memories, Trams and Rickshaws

A friend sent me a link yesterday

I howled in laughter when I saw the photo. I strongly believe that a person who does not like a particular environment can walk out of that, provided he does not expect to be subsidized. It is the morally weakest amongst us that expects to be subsidized citing one reason or the other (does it sound like Ayn Rand now?).

Today I was reading a newspaper when I saw a photo. It brought back a flood of memories from the past. 

Shown in the picture is a person pulling a rickshaw and a tram. Both are quite unique to Calcutta. 

Trams were there in Bombay and Madras as well till about 50 years back. Calcutta continues to have it, though their routes are quite restricted these days. Trams have 2 compartments, with a seating capacity of about 30 in each. The front compartment is 1st class (I think it has ceiling fans) and the rear compartment is 2nd class (with no fans I think). The cost of the ticket used to be (and I think still is) slightly higher in the 1st class. The best seat of course was right behind the driver, who would usually be standing. 

People would climb in or out of moving trams, as the trams rarely went at a speed exceeding 20km per hour. Where there was a junction (meaning where the tram could now go in 2 different directions, say right or left), there would be a person at the junction who would manually change the tram track alignment (based on the tram's route number) with a lever so that the tram could take the right path.

The rickshaw in the picture is a 2 wheeler which can carry two passengers and is pulled by a man. He has a metal object fastened to his fingers which (object) he shakes to hit the rickshaw bar that he holds in each hand. He simulates a "horn" this way. Usually he walks and sometimes he would run at a fair pace perhaps 7-8km per hour. Since there is no mechanical brake, he has to be careful and not move too fast while carrying passengers. 

The seat has a plastic cushion. The rickshaw is designed like a convertible car. There is a hood which can be pulled up to cover the head of the passengers should it be very sunny or if it starts raining. 

I used to travel in such a rickshaw to school about 30 years back. The driver's (rickshaw puller's) name was Ramdev. He was from Bihar and an extremely gentle and nice man. And I would go to school with 2 other boys, Sridhar and Madhusudhan. Since we (boys) were small, the rickshaw could accommodate three boys. 

Once when it started raining Ramdev pulled the hood over so that we would not get wet. I asked him how he could continue to pull the rickshaw while it was raining and would he not get a cold or get sick. He replied to me that rain was god's gift and that no one would ever fall sick by getting wet in the rain. His reply affected me profoundly. It's been more than 30 years since that day when Ramdev told me about rain. To this day I don't carry an umbrella. I have lived in Mumbai where it really pours. I have visited places where it rains incessantly. But I don't carry an umbrella nor wear a raincoat. 

And I do believe Ramdev was right. Rain is God's gift and it's good to get wet. I don't know where Ramdev is now or whether he is alive. But he made a long lasting impression on me that day.

Reasoning And Non-Reasoning

One of the things I always had trouble with people was in deciding when to use reason and when not to. I believe there is a time and place for using reason. Others many a times don't accept this.

If what I say seems a little shocking, let me explain my position a little. For example, if I ask "Do women feel more grumpy in the morning?" the answers I expect are only:
1. Yes
2. No
3. Cant Say

Now if a person responds to my question with something like "No, it is just that in the morning, because of the stress of the day's work ahead, a woman usually feels grumpy till she has a strong cup of coffee", I start wondering.

Now I suppose I have made myself clearer. From the other person's point of view the answer he/she provided is very clear. From my point of view, the response does not address my question. I did not ask the reason why a person feels grumpy. I just wanted to know whether or not my statement (data) was correct.

Coming to a common understanding of the data is of primary importance. Only then should we go into the reason why the data is so. That apples fall from the tree to the ground below is a fact. That data can exist independently of the knowledge of the reason. In a similar way, a man can be dead without anyone knowing the reason for his death.

Now this does not mean that I am never interested in going to a reason. We delve into the reason only when we want find out why something happened and when we want to minimize (or maximize) the possibility of recurrence of that event. For example, if I became unconscious, I would like to know why it happened so that I can avoid it next time. The WHY of anything makes life interesting. Knowledge of data (WHAT) is a cheap commodity. Going into the reason (WHY) makes it a lot more fun. It tickles your brain. Mankind has progressed as a result of asking WHY. Having said that, it is imperative to acknowledge the WHAT, baseline it before going into the WHY.

When we have a conflict with someone and we ask that person "why do you keep doing "this"? Can you stop it?", I expect and accept the following answers:
(a) "I am sorry, I wont do this henceforth".
(b)  "You are wrong, I didn't do any such thing. Can you give me proof that I did it? "
(c) "I do "this" because you do "that". If you avoid "that", I will avoid "this" "
(going into reason here is perfectly legitimate because the concerned person's action "that" drove the other person's action "this".

Now if the answer to my question instead is:
(d) The person says he did "this" because of some reason (for example, traffic in the road) which I didn't cause, what am I supposed to do? Did my problem get resolved? No.

The issue here is one person is expecting a resolution to a problem which the other person cannot accommodate. The right response for the complaint can only be (a), (b) or (c) above. For some reason that I am not able to understand, some people feel quite comfortable with a (d) response. The conflict continues..

What Can Go Wrong in Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi

The Commonwealth Games (CWG) are starting in 2 weeks time in the 1^st week of October. There has been quite a bit of controversy about the Games: Delays in completion of the activities involved, exorbitant prices charged by contractors, monsoon in Delhi. Quite a few of Delhiites, I read recently, are packing their bags to go out of town on vacation with their families. The Australian CWG team is apparently deciding whether to attend the games.

Apart from problems that we create on our own or acts of god, I was thinking, what else could happen if someone really wanted to make a mess of the CWG. Let me make a list of the stuff that could happen.

• Sabotage of stadiums, roads, monuments, airports, hotels either in India or in consulates. A country that wanted to create problem might blow up its own consulate.
• Sabotage of software, hardware, telecommunication relating to CWG
• Sabotage of essential stuff like electricity, water, trains
• Sabotage / adulteration / poisoning of medicines/milk/water/edible stuff 
• Spate of murders, kidnappings
• Take control of airport, station, Metro or hijack a train / plane
• Cause another an ecological damage; for example, create another ship accident and hence an oil spill
• Spread disease
• (Threat of) Exposure of previous embarrassing incidents, for example, of bribery/kickbacks
• Infiltration of militants planning for another 26/11 like incident either now or for later. Considering that the volume of tourists would undergo a sharp rise during the games and hence the immigration department at all the airports would be stretched, it might be considered a good idea to utilize this occasion for sending some trainee (or full fledged) terrorists now.
• Considering that the country would be preoccupied with the games, create more border incidents or encroach a few kilometers, say, in Arunachal / Sikkim / Ladakh.
• Create a hype/rumor of any or many of the above.

A lot of money would have been spent in making the preparations for the CWG. Serious incidents could affect the money inflow from tourism, from telecast rights. Indian government is especially not capable of getting into fast action in case of a calamity. Its tendency would be to see what CNN and BBC are reporting to find out what’s happening and perhaps to hear what Australia, US, Europe are recommending before it takes action. 

Do we have things in place? The Commonwealth world and especially Indians would be closely watching events of the next one month with their fingers (and possibly even toes) crossed.

When The Sun Goes Down

There used to be a time when I was mentally exceptionally fast. I was reasonably active physically. Cycling 20-30kms was easy when i was 19. Cycling up steep hilly roads in cold (-20C) weather was quite easy and fun for me when I was 22. When I was in my early thirties I would ride by cycle to office, which was about 5km each way and of course then put in 8 fairly stressful  ours. Of late, I find my energy decreasing, both physical and mental. Things which were ridiculously easy earlier, now require an effort. Sit ups, cycling, walking seem a little difficult. Puzzles, which I could do very fast earlier, now take twice as much time. When I write something I realize I have made spelling mistakes, something which would rarely happen earlier. When I used the word "practice" I am not sure whether it should be spelled with a "C" or a "S". I lose my documents, keys fairly regularly.

The other day, I was meeting with a friend of mine in his room in the second floor. As I walked down the steps and was about to step into the road outside his house, I realized that I had forgotten to wear my slippers. I was barefoot. None of this is really earth shattering. It just made me think.

I guess I peaked too early in life. I never realized it then. Everything seemed achievable until a few years back. I guess I have aged too fast, perhaps burnt more fuel; too little of it left now.

Now comes the interesting exercise of managing life with low fuel. It’s like you set out to cross the ocean but didn’t realize that you were burning too much diesel with too little left to carry you across. The realization hits you when you find your boat is not going as fast as it earlier did. And then you realize you have a long distance to go and you better be more careful.

The fun now is in determining what is being “more careful”. How do you regenerate your diesel in the middle of the ocean? 

Absentmindedness In The Context Of Wife Swapping

I had earlier mentioned some strange things that happened in the life of the 2 dogs that stay with me (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-interesting-thoughts-after.html). Of late there have been a few more incidents which I thought I would let everyone know.

Whenever my dogs see me they would bark happily or wag their tail or stretch like they are doing pushups. I would then walk into the house. Once or twice recently  I found I had walked into some neighbors' (whom I don’t know) house. This caused quite a lot of embarrassment especially when I wasn’t asked to leave immediately. It was then that I realized that some hanky panky was going on still in the dogs’ life.

I had read earlier that wife swapping was becoming common in India. I had not realized that dogs had caught on to this trend. Nowadays when I look at my shed, I find strange combinations of dogs. Sometimes the 2 old dogs are there along with a 3^rd female dog. Sometimes there are one or two new female dogs (and neither of the old ones) in my shed. Sometimes the old male dog is there with some other female dogs. How do they decide who is going to stay where and with whom? This has caused me a lot of distress. What are these dogs up to? Why are they doing this? There is an old saying "Behind every successful man there is a woman. Behind every unsuccessful man there are two women". Perhaps the dogs realized that this saying applies only to men and not to dogs.

And more importantly there is this question of feeding bread slices. Am I responsible for feeding any dogs in my shed? Am I renting out my shed to dogs with B&B (bed and breakfast) and am I to allow any dogs to stay there and expect to be fed there? Or am I responsible for feeding the old 2 dogs in which case should I start searching for their whereabouts everyday and take permission from the owner of the house where they are currently living (separately or together)?

I thought I had a tight rein on my life to ensure it remained simple. How come my simple life has become so difficult? As a friend explained to me, complications in life provide us with a rich experience. Maybe I will learn a rich lesson or two from these dogs.

The Child In Me

Some time back I had taken my mother to A***** Hospital (a renowned hospital) for a checkup. There was a man from rural Bengal who had come with his son to meet a psychiatrist. The doctor was a Tamilian who spoke English and only passable Hindi. The father could only speak Bengali and barely spoke Hindi / English. They were having a communication problem larger than what many marriages have. At some point, they raised an SOS asking for a Bengali-English/Tamil translator. Since I was kind of free, I took up that responsibility as a good citizen (I had a crooked intention - we will come to it soon enough) - and asked my mother to wait and I went to the psychiatrist's chamber. 

Now I was speaking Bengali after more than a year or two, hence it was rusty. Words used to describe the 10 year old patient (epilepsy, fits, rage etc) were obviously not the run of the mill words and initially I had some difficulty. I picked up such words in Bengali from the father as well as I could and I was soon doing pretty well. The conversation turned out to be largely between the patient's father and me with the doctor occasionally pitching in to say something technical. The doctor was obviously getting very restless and annoyed. He would try to interrupt the discussion between me and the patient and I would show my palm to him (indicating "please wait. don't talk").

The doctor/psychiatrist on the other hand was an A***** hospital doctor. He believed that the conversation should have been essentially between him and the patient and that the clerical work of translation should have been outsourced to me. It turned out that the patient (rather, his father) and I outsourced the "clerical" work of psychiatry to him. 

At the end of the meeting, the psychiatrist suggested to the patient's father that they meet up in the evening at his (doctor's) chambers. The father looked at me hopefully and inquired whether I would be able to come there (to continue to do the good work). I translated the request to the doctor. I am yet to see a doctor scream "NO" as loudly as the psychiatrist did then.

For a long time I have had a resentment against A***** doctors for the condescending way that they treat patients and / or their family members. I had sworn then "one of these days..."). I had a good fun at the doctor's expense - very childish, no?

Death of Actor Murali and The Effect on Astrology

Let me first explain the basics of Indian Astrology.

As per vedic (Indian/Hindu) Astrology, there are 12 houses in a horoscope (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces). And there are 9 planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu).

The first seven planets are real planets of our solar system while the last two are shadow planets. As per astronomy Sun and Moon are not planets while these are considered as planets in vedic astrology.

A person's horoscope is determined/can be cast once his date/month/year/time and place of birth are known. There are standard software available to make the horoscope once these details are known.

Now each planet may be good or bad in a person's horoscope based on where it's placed. Judgment of the strength of a planet in a horoscope is complex and quite error prone. 

In a person's life, each planet operates (this is called the "dasa", for example if Sun operates now, you are running Sun dasa) for a particular number of years as shown below. The order of the dasas will always be the same. But the starting dasa of each person may be different depending on which constellation moon was in. There are 27 constellations (Aswini... Revati). A person born with moon in Aslesha constellation will start his life with Mercury dasa and then Ketu, Venus, Sun and so on. If he lives beyond 120 years, the dasas will start all over again. 

Sun:       6

Moon:    10

Mars:      7

Rahu:    18

Jupiter:  16

Saturn:  19

Mercury: 17

Ketu:      7

Venus:   20

--------------

Total:    120

Each planet indicates a few aspects of our life. For example, 

• Jupiter indicates wisdom, Children, Wealth. 
• Mars indicates anger, a restless attitude, acquisition of land/factories, aristocratic tendency, brother
• Venus indicates fine arts, nature of and quality of  relationship with spouse, appreciation of fine living
• Saturn indicates fairness in character, longevity (long life), common behavior as against aristocratic behavior, tendency towards acquiring cheap things
• Mercury indicates intellect, wit/humor, ability in math
• Sun indicates father, eye, inclination towards politics
• Moon indicates mother, eye, wealth, mind

Having covered the elementary details of astrology (for example we have not talked about rules of prediction), let me explain my predicament.

Couple of days back Tamil film actor Murali died. He was about 46 years old. And I realized that the saturn in his horoscope would have been powerful. A couson of mine died last year at the age of 48. She also had a strong saturn. Mohd Rafi, a renowned film singer of yesteryears also had a strong Saturn and he died at the age of 56.

Astrologically, one of the factors that affects a person's longevity is the strength of saturn in his horoscope (it is not the only factor though). Looking at these three examples mentioned above, my belief in astrology is...

Additional reading: http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2009/07/vedic-astrology.html

Gender of Baby - II

After I wrote my previous post http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/09/fathers-y-chromosome-gender-of-baby-and.html on what determines the baby gender, I had a long discussion with a friend of mine. Some more clarity seemed to emerge in me. The factors that affect the gender of the baby to be born seem to be:

1. The ratio of X:Y chromosomes from the father and the quality/longevity of the chromosomes. 

2. The environment in the mother's body and how conducive it is towards the survival of the X and Y chromosomes. An alkaline environment is more conducive to Y chromosomes apparently. 

That still leaves a question unanswered.. If alkaline environment in a woman is more conducive for a boy to be born, how come the same alkaline environment in a man's body isn't conducive for a boy to be born?

Father's Y Chromosome, the Gender of the Baby and Mom's Diet

I was reading an article today about research done (http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/07/want-a-girl-eat-dairy-shun-salt-and-have-sex-sometimes/) in Maastricht University in Holland according to which the gender of the baby is largely determined by the diet that the mom has, while adding that the diet of the father has no impact on the baby's gender. Apparently a Calcium (Ca) / Magnesium (Mg) rich diet results in a girl being born while a Sodium (Na) / Potassium (K) rich diet decreases the chance of the baby being a girl (and I assume this means a "Valency 1" diet of Na/K diet results in boy while a "Valency 2" diet of Ca/Mg results in a girl. I brought in valency just so that it is easier to remember what kind of diet can result in a boy/girl). Note that a diet of any "Valency 1 or 2" may not cause the mentioned result. The research specifically talks about Ca/Mg and Na/K. I brought in Valency 1/2 to make it easy to remember.

Now as we might know, the gender of the baby is determined by the type of the chromosome that the father donates (a male has X, Y chromosomes and he can donate either of the two while a female has two X chromosomes and hence always donates an X. If the baby gets a Y from the father then it's a boy, and if the baby receives an X chromosome from the father then it's a girl). As per the the chromosome theory, the woman plays no part in the gender of the baby.

With the basic theory mentioned above as the backdrop, the new research finding at Maastrict University comes as a surprise. How do we reconcile the new finding with the XY chromosome theory?

As per the research mentioned above 21 women followed a "Valency 2" diet and 16 of the 21 women gave birth to girls. Interesting, but based on too small a sample.

Applying the same logic to India where the preference is usually to have a boy rather than a girl, a high "Valency 1 (Na/K) diet may be recommended to pregnant moms. This would perhaps result in a high BP during pregnancy. In India it might still be considered a better bet to have high BP for 9 months than a high BP for 50 years (in case the baby turns out to be a girl).

I have always wondered whether the woman (or some other factor) could induce the male to donate a specific chromosome. Now is it possible that the mom's  "Valency 1" diet causes the father to donate a Y chromosome (and "Valency 2 -> X Chromosome)? And why would the mom's diet (or any other factor) affect the type of chromosome that the father donates? We will have to wait for more interesting stuff on this topic. See for example,
http://www.isna.org/faq/y_chromosome, http://www.science20.com/news_releases/chromosomes_are_so_20th_century_male_genes_really_determine_baby_gender_says_study.

Here is one more study: http://healthydiet-sky.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-to-eat-their-food-can-help-you-boy.html. I am still trying to understand :(.