Mhaisal - a village, on the banks of the river Krishna, is in Sangli district of the western state of Maharashtra. Being on the boundary between Karnataka and Maharashtra, it is a confluence of cultures, languages and religions. Though the official language is Marathi, almost seventy percent of the population is bi-lingual. The highway to Bijapur and Belgaum, passes through the village. Agriculture is the main occupation, with sugar-cane, and grapes being the most important crops. Mhaisalkars are lovers of festivals, which are celebrated all year round with fervor and gaiety. (Map)
It is fortuitous that not only do I hail from Mhaisal, but chose, to spend my life here.


Saturday, June 5, 2010

Rhyming Problem!

Our cousin gifted us a Cocker Spaniel female. Like all pups, she so endeared herself to all of us that for some time she was the only topic of discussion in the family. Manisng, my son promptly named her, Lizza. (For some strange reason, it is customary, to give English names to cats and dogs in our family, we have a German Shepard named 'Tyson', and a couple of mixed breeds named 'Jockey' and 'Lion' ).
Though we have always owned many different breeds of dogs, this is the first time we have got a Cocker Spaniel. Our parents, as part of proper grooming, had taught us to rinse our mouths after every meal, but now we realised for Cocker Spaniels, this was not enough!, their ears too need washing after every meal, as the poor animals just cannot help dipping them into the food while eating.
A few days later, we brought home Lizza's sibling, as both of them were lonely without each other. I named her "Daisy"- and there began a rhyming problem!. The two are always together, and they need to be addressed simultaneously. They were either called "Lazy-Daisy", or "Lizzy-Dizzy". Now with her tremendous verve and energy, Lizzy was certainly not lazy, and neither did Daisy show any signs of  dizziness.

Our staff, who, did not like the English names anyway, promptly changed them, to  "Champi-Dampi", to be immediately admonished by my  better half, Varsha. She felt it sacrilege to change a name so lovingly given by her son and hubby.
Any suggestions here?

Leaving The Comfort Zone

With ancient civilizations such as our's, the common refrain is that things hardly change. We are so comfortable with the old order that ushering in the new, is fraught with a sense, of not just fear of the unknown, but guilt of having destroyed the old.
Old ideas, which we tenaciously hold, are the root cause of much of the strife and pain around us. These may be about God and Creation,or about Caste, or for that matter the Mores and Traditions, about which we are extremely possessive and proud. I feel that the problem lies in the fact that we are in a transitory phase. On the one hand technology has progressed by leaps and bounds, and on the other, humans still are found to be adhering to age old thinking. I, feel that this is a glaring failure of our education system, that in-spite of centuries of enlightened thinking, majority of the people still cannot grasp, the simple truths, that science has made available and proved beyond doubt. The difficult part is convincing the majority, who have been brainwashed, since childhood, to believe in certain ideas, and no amount of proofs, to the contrary, can dent their beliefs.
I feel the time has come when we need to overhaul our entire "belief systems", be they about our attitudes towards fellow humans, fellow living beings, or for that matter towards the entire animate and inanimate universe.
Change is indeed difficult to accept, but as the protagonist says in Dr. Johnson's famous book 'Who moved my cheese', "When you change what you believe, you change what you do!"
In a lighter vein, I made a small beginning in accepting change today! I always believed that only a certain barber knew how to cut my hair, and I had diligently stuck with him for all of Thirty Five years. I had to go for a new one as my old trusted one had become old and infirm, and to my surprise, the new one certainly did a great job.
After all, Change is not always for the worse!