Drag-Net of Virtual Reality

Picture or Word is Virtual Reality

A ‘Picture’ or a ‘Word’ for a tree is not a ‘Tree’.

Both are symbols. We assume its meaning by convention or as per our level of perception. Its Reality however is complex and multidimensional.

A word or a picture, sculpture, photo or movie... in many avatars – old / new – though they may seem to be attractive, it is never permanent, it is momentary, it is far from ground reality.

It is, therefore, necessary to go beyond it, experience and check it in the real world, keeping personal likes/ dislikes, beliefs, habits, dogmas away. This may help us enrich and develop our perception of reality. It also reveals us many dimensions of reality. This makes constructive creativity in thought and action possible, for anyone. This much is certainly possible for us, irrespective of our calling – a prince or a pauper or a pundit.

A word or a picture has limitations in an infinite space and in linear time. Over a period of time the meanings and references of words too change.

Instead of watching and enjoying a virtual reality in whatever forms, and to create its memorial means to be a victim or a slave of virtual reality, to get entangled further in its dragnet constantly. In other words it is living in the past, in other words, is to deny the present – to deny living Life itself.

In the present state of mechanical way of living, not only human life but also life of all living beings is being exploited. At such times any idea, theory, dogma, law, act... all could turn into terror and extremity in various ways at personal, societal, local, regional and/or global levels. It is no surprise.

A fact, any fact, continually changes; it is never a state of truth. Truth can never be caught in word/s. Truth, which is caught in words, does not remain truth.

Is there a way out from the drag-net of Virtual Reality?

Thinking 'within box' of a belief in civil society does not offer any answer! The beliefs are built over ages as customs, though they may be relevant in the bygone times. Not only the natural environment but also the social, political, economic environment goes through constant change.

However, civilized society is historically based on centralized power of class/caste and division of labour. Through ages this has never changed. The instrument of Virtual Reality is designed to support the present class of centralized power.


Imagine what was the population of India before the Aryans came, or even before the emergence of civilizations in India 5000 years ago? Later, invasions by many races continued to follow until the recent times of colonization, and now it is neo-colonization.

The warfare between Aryans and Non-Aryans, variously named in Indic languages, was primarily racial. Hitler in Germany is an extreme example of dogmatic Aryan extremity. There may be more...

In the social sphere it may be worth to consider: how far the four Varnas – classes – of Vedic times, in the following centuries, took ugliest dogmatic extremity in castes, sub-castes, and sub-sub-castes!  Cases of discrimination against women, by way customs of child marriage, Sati, parda, and atrocities by high castes males on the women of low castes are many. For example, after Kurukshetra war, Dhrutarashtra’s last rites were performed by his illegitimate son, because all his hundred sons were dead (Mahashweta Devi, After Kururukkshtra). 

Siddhartha Jatakas have many stories that explicitly condemn women; they were denied entry to the Sangha.

The Industrial Civilization has perfected its system of colonizing the masses through their education system. Learning is autonomous function of all the living-beings. But the British-made mass education system that we continue to follow is a primary cause of alienation of all those produced on assembly line of mass education. It produces the Culture of Contentment that leads to the alienation from the ‘Other’, may they be their kin.
Now there is wave of Virtual Reality through multimedia. It depends upon how to put it for constructive use for the well-being of all.

"There's no question that this is a time when corporations have taken over the basic process of governing." (Galbraith in a PBS television interview on The Newshour shortly before his death)

An Example: A Song, a Movie & Real Life India

Words, tones, meanings, emotions form a song. Then, could 'Chuk de India', the song be moved out from the movie? What is exact difference between to make such a movie and to happen in real life at entire India? Mere hollow slogan! Noise pollution inside out!

There is no other school like Family. There is no other college like Community, where the Family is its unit. There is no other Guru like Mother Nature.

However, when Family, Community, Society and Mother Nature are assaulted by the faceless power-hungry class, then what shall be the fate, who shall be the saviour of the new born or the yet-to-born? Or would that be their God (or branded gods) and the religious institutions founded by the civilized societies - civilizations?

Only a Community, i.e. cohesive collective, with autonomy could offer freedom from present Identity Crisis.

The so-called virtual communities on Internet Web sites are a magnificent illusion; it pampers only Ego, not a valid way out for the identity crises, but entangles more in Virtual Reality.

Could the affluent educated parents, elders and the youth build up such a community or several communities, of course, in cities?

End piece: Every person is creative

In a democratic republican State every person must get opening to her/his creativity. That goes without debate.

Creativity is not a prerogative of any class, race or any particular person – a genius. There are no hierarchies. It means that all the affairs of the collective must be changed from the root. Here the role of a government is merely of a facilitator without any bias.

Life is larger than all Arts, Sciences, Religions, Philosophies, trade, techs, State... through times and places.

8 March 2013

Note: 'Culture of Contentment', an essay by J K Galbraith describes American society believes it is classless, and ignores its functional Underclass. Aren't we, some of us lured / influenced by American Affluence!
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

LEARNING AIDS IN BOOKS!

LEARNING AIDS IN BOOKS!

Survival and Life in Mumbai – Daily Bread

Image-1

Squatter Mother, Child and Hearth, in Mumbai

Two generations have born and grew up in Mumbai in subhuman conditions. But no one knows how to give them fair deal as citizens of this great nation.

Image-2

Mother and Father: Marathi proverb modified

In Mumbai about 60% persons live in "Grey Land Use Zone", which is illegal or unrecognized. They landless, homeless, displaced and marginalized in their motherland. The elite are chasing them away everywhere.

Image-3

Survival and Life in City: Mother's Little Helpers

Precious childhood learns life-supporting skills in the nursery school of Life itself: there is no better teacher anywhere. What memories would they carry as they grow-up? Who knows? They may not have entered even the Census Survey of India. 

Image-4

Mother Nature!, Give us this day our honest bread!

The marginalized and displaced have no demands even for their needs

from anyone.

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Learning aids - 1

This hawker on street has her kin and clan and close-knit community scattered in city: They don't suffer Identity crisis, though homeless in their Motherland.

"यही मुंबै मेरी जान ।"
This Mumbai My Love!

Image-6

Street vendor in Mumbai

This street vender, though s/he may be illiterate, but knows well:

• about 'survival' (meaning, to live sanely) better than 'Authority';
• about what things sell in this metropolis;
• about life that teaches lessons in the country-wide-classroom;
• about authority that is a faceless entity;
• about glossy paper books that fail to teach lessons in Real Life, Down to Earth;
• about the pampered kids pushed to live in the Virtual Reality, day in out;
• And about how to save to her portable shop, from the baton...

Image-7

Street vendor in Mumbai

There are many dimensions to this frugal figure acquired through the glorious past, an Epic Poem in Person.

The elders hardly have time to take their kids to nearby places to look at vegetable & fish market, grocery shop, gardens and parks - though a very few, paddy farms on the outskirts of the city/suburbs or town, which offer innumerable variety in every aspect described in these glossy books, and much more.

Poor kids! Despite affluence they don’t have grandparents who could help, nearby...

Children have countless curiosities — questions, keen observation with all their senses, above all, their spontaneity and innocence!
But before long, before they see, experience and understand the real world around them, not even their immediate neighbourhood, they are pushed into Virtual Reality: Ready canned food, drinks, spices, views in TV, cell phone, MP3, Info-Technology.
At a tender age of 2-3, they are admitted into a public domain called 'nursery school', when they are not even introduced to their kin and clan: So they become 'smart' guys 'n gals.
This is rubbing salt on the wounded cohesive collective by the demise of joint family.

• Can a school impart social values, which kinship and community could inculcate without a paid lecturer?
• Could the Industry & Trade remove this social lack of values and morality?
• Can a physicist and an economist sitting on high chairs at the helm of country's affairs provide answer with rockets and global market economy?

∴ The elders, each one, should try to find the answers.
(08-01-2013)

Life is larger than all Arts, Sciences, Religions, Philosophies, trade, technologies, States... through times and places, — Remigius de Souza

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Formative Age of a Person

Whose responsibility it is anyway?

"A child's feet are seen in the crib" (The feet show child's future) — How the child would lead life in future — a Marathi idiom. It indicates people's belief in fate. Isn't there any responsibility of the parents / guardians, teachers and society to help child's development? To say tradition is always best is merely a dogma.

Image-1

‘The Formative Age’ by Remigius de Souza, Mumbai, 2003

Image-2

Sapling in a Tree-pot

 In the tropics, light and moisture are enough for plants to live.

Even plants turn around in search of light for their growth. In crowded plants each finds its way; sometimes they grow straight up and higher, sometimes bend around, in the direction of light. There are no quarrels, fights, arguments! (If there are any, we do not understand their tongue.)

Image-3

Plant on a pavement in Mumbai - 1

This tree is on my usual walkway. During monsoon a beautiful creeper grew in the hollow of its trunk. One day found it vanished: Perhaps a dutiful street sweeper had removed it. At the same time new shoots grow from the trunk and roots.

Wherever there is natural thick tree cover, especially in the mountain ranges, there we get to see such a scene, also in a mass plantation. In cities, too, on the street pavements, the transplanted saplings (from nurseries) helped by watering, invariably grow in various directions.

Municipalities probably do not know the right "places and spaces" for the growth of various plants. Oh, those who don't know about the appropriate 'place and space' for the growth of humans, how could they have any concern for the plants?

Image-4

Plant on pavement in Mumbai - 2

Plants, too, wish to live despite various adversities, one of them is modern urban aesthetics (and ethics) about Life and Survival.

Image-5

Detail, Plant on pavement in Mumbai - 3

 On pavements of Mumbai/ two generations of the displaced and marginalized are born and grew up. Who knows where did they reach? How could the impotent know?

There is an idiom, 'under a great tree other plants don't grow'. However, it is applicable to plantation by humans. Actually, it refers to great persons, or humans, certainly not great trees.

In a natural forest, a great tree supports many a animal and plant species.
Cut down a great tree and see what happens. It not only destroys Life of so many species, but also, affects environmental balance, reduces ground water, causes desert to expand, droughts and famines begin...
But what is it to the egocentric, greedy power-mongers? No regrets or shame! If poor ryot starve, it is not a spicy news story!

Mother Nature, 'Srishti', provides resources (and autonomous functions) for the sustenance and protection to all the species — their body and mind — in their schema, may they be bacteria or human species. Her management is not at all like that of selfish, power-greedy civilized societies. Not even their gods (of human species) can interfere in Mother Nature's affairs.

Nature, here, isn't romantic greenery in poetry / fiction. Just as Mother Nature occupies all the known-unknown universes, so also is within us.
She does, so do we, want us to grow in body and mind, which requires appropriate 'place and space'. 

Here, 'place' is not area, i.e. sq ft/sq m area by government rule book. And 'space' is not 3D box/block in geometry.

 

 Two extreme examples

First example is of the collective, and second is of an individual. These are two far ends of recent examples from civilized society.

1st. In Vietnam a generation was born on the war field, grew up with gun and fought war with the US. The US lost the war.

2nd: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of former Baroda State. His relations with British Raj are well known. His comprehensive development work for People is more eye-catching than his worldly wealth.
Who was Sayajirao? A boy, from a humble family, adopted in the royal family to be a king!
What is the use of mere wealth of a rich person without right formation? Truly he was 'Rajarshi', Sage-King or Sage-Statesman.

Between the two ends in the above two examples, it may be worth to examine a million cases. But the advance societies/experts stop short at sample surveys. In their tongue there is no idiom, 'as many persons that many characters'.
Otherwise they often publish reports, about Internet, TV, cell phone users etc.

There is a third example, outside civilized society. Here it is mentioned only for record though most important. Most people are not familiar about them. They are the aborigines, 'adivasi', communities in India and the world. Their communities and culture have beginning in the remote ancient times.
________________

Notes:
1.The poster was written while I was writing a number articles on education during past three decades.
2. This post is translated from the original post published on my Marathi blog: REMICHI MARATHI BOLI.
3.  I have written few notes about the aborigines in India. Some are published in print and on this blog.

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Advice by Father to Son (Extracts from a book)

Extracts from book:

IN ONE ERA AND OUT THE OTHER

By Sam Lawson

Advice by Father to Son

"Never Depend On Strangers".

"Remember Son, if you ever need helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm."

"And if you want your dream to come true, Don't Sleep."

"I met all challenges, reaped rewards and found myself with everything a man could ask for including an outstanding collection of doubts, misgivings and ambivalence in all sides."

"A penny is a lot of money if you haven't got a cent."

"1+1=2 fine in the school. At home 1+1=2 What?"

"1 pair of skates = 12 violin lessons."

"1 phone call = 1 carfare to a museum."

"4 movies = 1 shirt."

"1 bicycle = 10 pairs of eyeglasses."

"5 ice-cream sodas = 2 pairs of socks."

"You mustn't lie, but you don't have to tell the truth either. Just keep your mouth shut."

"For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people."

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness."

"For slim figure, share your food with the hungry."

"For beautiful hair, let a child run fingers through it."

"For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone."

There are two types of Poverty

1. Poverty inflicted by the powerful classes of civilized societies by various means -wars, famines, monopolizing the resources of the Earth for their greed for Power and Profit on the weaker sections.
2. Poverty by Choice to live by taking minimum resources from the earth for the survival and living in harmony with nature, like the aborigine - adivasi - communities of the world.

My Strategies

• Choose only one necessity now out of two or more options for expenditure. 

• With no currency at hand, there were no problems with basic needs, what to chose. 

• Until the age of eighteen it went on like this. By then I had acquired skills in farming, cooking, house maintenance, etc. besides hundreds of errands that village kids are involved. At this level self-help is the cheapest and most economical option available for those who face scarcity.

During the study at college, learning and working to support education went together.

Even after the college studies, there never was surplus to splurge.

These strategies took shape during childhood. There was none to advice, no newspapers, no radio. One learns by watching what others do, whatever is happening around, thinking and learning by self-access.

I was six year old then. My mom, with my brother in arms, and I were displaced, marginalized and became landless peasants. We walked barefoot to another village. From that time on I was earning (working) while learning (schooling), mom's young helper.
ECONOMY IS NOT MONEY.

It was war time away in other continents. Yet in remote far away corner of our village its brunt was felt. Happily we were in village. It was far different economy then. The Land, Water and Plants did provide to those who were ready for the BROWN CALLER VOCATION.

______________
NOTE: In 1985, I borrowed this autobiographical book from public library. I should have noted the publisher's name etc. The book was written soon after World War II. I have been going through the resource crunch. No one was there to advice me. But I knew the difference between Needs and Wants. This advice is speaking my mind.

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

WAYS TO WEALTH (POEM)

Ways to Wealth (Indian Budget - Year 2006)

1 
Once a god-adored adorned
many a head of door to an abode.
Now the gods take to the road,
beg for patronage. And the rich
beggars go globetrotting for
finance, know-how and trade.

2 
Once the children of communities
cohesive received learning free
in the life-supporting skills in
branches of wholesome life-tree.

Now in the forward societies
they buy it at the trading malls
turning their clocks fast forward
until late to their adulthood
to earn their dough of uncertain
value to buy the living and life-
supporting services from expertise
at the thriving market place.

3
Now the bureaucrats – the masters
from the branches of expertise,
at their highest level of incompetence
in Peter Principle – take chairs;
replace colours faded of feudal-powers,
at the helm of the people’s affairs.

Now no wonder the prostitution goes
rampant and the pimps thrive on
as they make it quick with smile on
the by-ways and highways to wealth.

4 
Now no wonder all the world children
– you and I, yours and mine –
are the cursed ‘unwanted generation’,
as much said, the ‘growing population’
by the stakeholder – the rational animal – man
as much done: the rape of Mother Earth.

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 04-03-2006
(Revised and updated)

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Civilization Trap In Our Era

Civilization Trap In Our Era
by Remigius de Souza

(CIVILIZATION TRAP was originally published in the Fourth World Review (FWR) | Editor John Papworth | Nos. 133 & 134, 2005, UK, p 16. The archives of FWR issues are available on http://www.4thworld.co.uk . This is an updated version.)

Quote: 

"…misapplied science has brought to the world's richest virgin lands a desolation compared with which the ravages of all the wars in history are negligible", (Jacks and Whyte, 'The Rape of the Earth').

MIGHTY CIVILIZATION AND EMPIRES have vanished, however, people prevail. Huge species like dinosaurs vanished, bacteria prevail.

But Industrial Civilization, from ‘Jenny’ to ‘Dolly’, monopolizes resources of the earth that belong to all the living beings.

It seems Industrial Civilization is in a great hurry to wipe out all living beings including 'other' humans (who don't subscribe to industrialization).

It takes on a role of God-the-creator to create enormous wealth and enormous waste with tools of science and technology, economy and market.

It, of course, shall vanish by its “over-specialization”, whether in big nations or small nations or societies. It is the lesson of history.

Thankfully, ‘the majority of the world still sustains outside the capitalist /socialist economy’, says Shanin, sociologist, in an interview (Teodor Shanin, How the other half live| New Scientist | 03 August 2002 | issue 2354, p 44). However the industrial civilization, through its puppets, tries hard to bring them into its dragnet.

It has created enormous number of institutions to control almost every aspect of living of an individual and the collective, which causes to end up loosing their autonomy of decision-making and action, therefore, their identity.

'Identity Crisis' is the result of mass type of civil society that reflects in today's worldwide unrest and in various forms of violence.

It is apparent in five autonomous functions of the living: Work 1, Leisure 2, Health 3, Learning 4 and Propagation 5. These functions are given by Mother Nature to all the living beings – from bacteria to plants and animals, including humans – to sustain. Morally there is no authority – an individual or an organization – to control these autonomous functions of living-beings – mosquito or man.

Now Industrial Civilization has taken over these functions, from the collective and an individual, of course, to capitalize for power and profit, through legal means.

Unfortunately, for example, the doses of 24x7 non-stop opium of Entertainment, called Leisure Industry, do not work! (A Great Epoch flies at a Tangent)

Some recent Examples:
WORK: 1. Farmers Strain to Hire American Workers in Place of Migrant Labour,but no takers for brown collar job in the US (Kirk Johnson | New York Times | October 5, 2011)
WORK: 2. UK unemployment total hits 17-year high (BBC NEWS, 16 March 2011)
HEALTH: Trillion-dollar brain drain: Enormous costs of mental health problems in Europe not matched by research investment. (NATURE | 4 October 2011 | Issue 478, 15)

Read More>> Michael Jackson is an epitome of great epoch

These are few recent stories of highly industrialized and wealthy nations. What could be imaginable condition of the Third World Nations?

Religion of science-technology, which is not universal phenomenon, failed to bring promised salvation to entire humanity globally or locally!
 
And the experts, who work in their boxes of specialization and have blinkered view of the world, find no answer/s.

In such a situation, can I be autonomous? Not until I reflect upon what I eat and wear and patronize, and why; until the end of all rationale beyond the most publicized term ‘Global’. Then there is possibility of creative action/ inaction. That’s what “Local” means.

--------------------------------- 

Quote:

...the social and finacial development which is called 

the industrial revolution. — H. G. Wells, 

A Short History of the World. 1922.

(Read: development 'of/in' inequality — my correction )

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

These Offspring of Kali

By Remigius de Souza

Image 1: Ma Kali (Detail), Photo - Poulomee Das

  Kali - Goddess of Destruction and Regeneration,

is one of the three expressions of Shakti or Energy.

The other two are Lakshmi - goddess of sustenance

and Sarasvati - Goddess of Learning.

I jump on an incoming evening seven thirteen train
to secure a window seat.
As I open 'Leaves of Grass' the first line noticed,
declares, 'Sing on there in the swamp' in
the 'Memoirs of President Lincoln'.

An urchin occupies the seat next to me
With harmonium on her lap;
Her fingers wide apart, search for a pitch across
on the bars, high low, high low,
from maintain picks to deep seas.

She settles on a pitch appropriate to the crowded train
in motion, plays a pop movie song.
On the threshold of sprouting youth, her dark face
And full eyes glowed divine grace;
She is sound personified.

Her wards, two little sisters, one recites the songlines;
The other with tiny folded hands;
They appeal to the softer edges of weary home-going crowd;
They, not belonging to the mundane, remain
Untouched by hostilities or sympathies.

The Time atomised; there is no yesterday, tomorrow neither.
The concert moves to the next compartment.
They have not lost either their fragrance of innocence
Or dignity of untimely adulthood,
In the energies creative to sustain.

The last straw of hope, yet for the Post-historic
Civilization of exploitation
These offspring of Kali, until they open
The Third Eye imminent
To make way for regeneration.
* * *

Image 2: Ma Kali, Photo by Poulomee Das

(Written, 1980s)
Notes 1: 21st century is witnessing uprisings of the poor at many places. This has been happening in the past, but now it is simultaneously a Global Action, as a result of Global Oppression by invisible tentacles of invisible global Capitalist Powers.
2: Images 1 and 2: Photographs by Poulomee Das show Head (detail) and the full form of the deity – Kali – made by the traditional Bengali artisans.
~~~~
© Remigius de Souza. all rights reserved.

Minimal, Minimalist, Minimalism Defined

Key Words: Minimal, Minimalist, Minimalism, Environmentally Sustainable, Art, Science

Minimalism started as a trend in art and design in the west. However, minimalist way of living, objects or artefacts have been existing from unknown times. Customarily it refers to art and design, which puts it in a box of a fashion, where a person may not 'walk the talk'.

Minimal is not minimum, but is to go beyond or achieve the best within minimum in living, thought and action. Minimal implies essential; it is not merely simple. It is neither junk or trash nor extravaganza.

Definitions, however, limit the scope of the defined. We, therefore, start with examples, and arrive at our definitions according to our perceptions. There is no formula! However, it may not be out of place here to add Universal Definition of Design by Nature written by Martin Jones, bio-archaeologist.

Let us start with primary and most familiar examples: Water (by Mother Nature) and Food: Roti – 'bread' (home made – by Mom).

Water is one of the minimalist creations by Mother Nature

WATER is fascinating Element: It soft, malleable, takes the shape of a container, always goes down the soil or to meet the sea, in heat vaporizes, moves meekly around obstacles on the way, cuts through rocks, mixes salts-minerals of soils… 70% of our body is water.

But there comes a time, when this taken-for-granted and often ignored element dances Shiva's Tandav of tsunami!

Water in Science

Water (defined as: 'H2O') is one of all the expressions, creations of Mother Nature! As a matter of fact, all her creations – from microbes to mammals, from algae to giant banyan – are minimal events. This sets an example and also a definition of 'minimal'. Mother Nature is our first and the last Guru!

Such tsunamis also happen in civilized societies. Whenever the arrogant and powerful classes / castes exploit and push the lowly – the sea of people – to the brink of subsistence, the waves of tsunami arise. This is the power within 'minimal'!

Roti as food is minimalist act

FOOD: vegetables, roots, tubers, grains, fruits... each of these have their unique taste, flavour and nutrition. They are also revealed by minimal process and in eating them fresh.

But having four meals a day, on full stomach, we can't fancy their tastes and nourishment; we find it ordinary. We become imaginative and add embellishments, decorations, ornaments... new experiments, processes in preparations of food.

There begins a market competition and struggle to make tasty exotic foods. It is just as we try to beautify our body as if... in this extraordinary creation by Mother Nature was incomplete!

Most elementary food is Roti – flat round Indian bread, and its regional variations. It is by now known in many parts of the world. Roti is made of flour of different grains: maize, rice, millet, finger millet, bulrush millet, barley or wheat. Rich Indian biodiversity also offers variety in various grains.

To make Roti all that you need are: Tava - a concave plate of clay or iron to bake, a wooden or metal plate to knead flour, salt, Chulah – hearth – of clay or just three stones, brush wood for fire  and, of course, water. I believed Roti is indeed a 'minimal' food, until I tasted baked maize loaf made by Bhill aborigines.

Henry D. Thoreau in 'Walden' (pp 99-101) writes about bread by Red Indians, which may not be different from maize Roti made by Bhill and other aborigines and peasants in India. Thoreau writes by experiments and experience of Indian bread, not by impressions.

Minimalist maize loaf by Bhill aborigines

Bhill Festival at Mahi River, Kadana, Gujarat

It was three day annual fair during spring on Chaitri Poonam (full moon day: this year on 18-04-2011). Bhills from Gujarat, MP and Rajasthan states had gathered on the white sands on bank of Mahi River among hills near village Kadana.

I camped there for three days and nights in the open (no bed, no sleeping bag) among Bhill families. At night all would sleep around campfires. They get up at an early hour. First the women take bath in the river, and then men follow. As I come out of warm water I felt thousand pin pricks. No sooner the Sun appears the water becomes very cold. After bathing it is time for breakfast.

Adivasi women started to prepare breakfast, before daybreak. They made balls of kneaded maize flour, wrapped each in the leaves of a specific plant and put them in the campfire. By the time bathing is over the freshly baked maize loaves are ready for breakfast.

The taste, flavour and nutrition of the maize loaf were extraordinary. It remained in my memory as unique and only experience of lifetime. And also the memory of their warm hospitality, though I was a total stranger.

Ingredients of maize loaf are flour, salt, river water, wooden bowl, leaves and brushwood fire; that's all. This could truly be called ‘minimal’ and 'environmentally sustainable' food and way of living, both.

'It is Walking, not the Way' — Vatsyayana      

Hunger is basic to body and mind. Food nourishes both, body and mind. Yet we are only custodians of our body and mind. In transplant operations heart is kept alive outside of body by supplying energy. Why boast it is my heart?

Minimal object is possible when one follows minimal 'way of living', which can't be called 'life-style': No compromises.

Ancient flute of bone 30000 ybp (Credits: NYTimes)

 Source: The New York Times

Note: There are number of "minimal" artefacts people use. Bamboo flute is has ancient origine. Archaeologists have discovered 30,000 years old bone flute some time back. I took my lesson on slate. People still take lessons on slate; Rangoli is another ancient example of "minimal" (land) art.Traditional nine yard Sari in India is single piece dress for women, which is a minimal artefact; many do not even wear a blouse. However a bikini, which is displayed on a fashion ramp, is only a minimum object, and must not be mistaken as minimal. In his paintings Raja Ravi Varma uses Sari for his female subjects. Haiku in poetry is indeed minimalist.

Rangoli inscribed on Mumbai's roadside pavement

Swastika in the centre of this image is repeated for ages

  a million times by women in India.

It is believed this action draws Cosmic Energies.

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai
22-04-2011

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Indian Schooling

In the year 1947 India's population was about 400 millions, and 60% to 70% persons were illiterate. Presently there are 400 millions illiterate persons. What at the beginning of 20th century G. K. Gokhale attempted, to bring 'free and compulsory education to all, is still not fulfilled.

Indian Schooling

I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY to watch a short play on Door Darshan (DD), India's State TV channel, on 21-09-1989, in the afternoon transmission. It was on the occasion of International Year of Literacy. The play was about schooling. Now I, sort of, admire its main actors, Sulabha Deshpande and A. K. Hangal. I consider them to be respectable artists in the Indian cinema, TV and theater.

The play is obviously propaganda for the good cause of the spread of education by schooling. In the play an old lady (Sulabha Deshpande) wants the little boy to go to school so that he does not remain stupid like her old man (A. K. Hangal).

The boy looks after the goats and does not want to go to school. At last the old lady sells the goats. But the boy is upset. He refuses to go to school. He even attacks the other boys who come to take him bodily to school.

I wondered if Hangal and Sulabha pondered for a while over the treatment of the theme!
Here the goats are projected as the pets in the affluent families like pedigree dogs, horses, cats etc. For a villager a goat, cow, buffalo or hen is a means of livelihood.

Why then is the old man said to be stupid? Is it because he is poor? He is poor perhaps because he has been exploited first by British rulers and now by the industrialized society in India?

Why is schooling so important that one should give up the very means of livelihood – goats? Why is the rearing of animal so inferior? (Well. Some people consider that the goat is an enemy of forestation. Forestation means left over — whatever that is left after modern man — has eaten away the forest. Otherwise the goat is a sturdy animal which can live in the deserts as well as mountains, in hot as well as cold climate and is most economical to maintain for the poor. Its milk is medicinal.)

I wondered, couldn’t a goat, a tree, a paddy field, the making of an earthen pot, or moving of a plough in the field be part of schooling in India?

Why can’t actual cooking or preparing food, treating the sick, growing a kitchen garden, Milking a goat or a cow (the method of milking is different for each of these animals), making a toilet, urinal, treating garbage in the village, potatoes and onions, water and washing, sand dunes and ravines, cyclones and floods be part of schooling — actually, not merely verbally — not merely on the blackboard — either inside or outside the school building?

But the system the British started is so powerful that there is not much change except in nomenclature and timings.The so-called educationalists are still in the grip of the system started by the British. The play that was shown on DD is typical of the way the educated, the urban elite project schooling and education.

What if 5.57 lakhs of villages in India gave up rearing animals?

What if every family of 557 thousand households brings up graduates, masters and doctorates? Then, perhaps, those sitting in the chairs will lose the power game, of musical chairs; they play with lives of poor people. Finally, what is the relevance of present day English-made schooling in the eyes of these villages where 70% of the population is still illiterate?

This English-made system of education has not much changed since it started in this vast country made up of villages having a variety of landscapes, regions, climates, dresses, tongues, topography.

I take a little time off to ponder meanwhile this ‘natak’ (play or Tamasha) of Door Darshan brings insult and humiliation to realities of living in an Indian village!

For further reading: 1. Politics of Literacy in India; 2. Farming and the Politics of Education in India; 3. One Step Quantum Jump in Education; 4. Letters and Numbers, plus ‘Things to Make': Restructuring (Indian) Education 

Note: After twenty years I find this note is still valid. It has not changed the situation other than few numbers, while the population is growing. I republish it.

[Published in (1) GOGRAS, publishers Akhil Bharat Krishi Goseva Sangh, Vardha, India 442001, March 1990, year 14, issue 5, p. 236-7; (2) FOURTH WORLD REVIEW, Issue 44, p 14, The Close, 26 High Street, Purton, Wiltshire SN5 9AE, UK. 1990]
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Bee-Hive-Honey - Icon of Environment-Ecology-Energy

Apiary in Natural Habitat

Bee-Hive-Honey is an icon of Environment-Ecology-Energy, the Holy Trinity - EEE - in our times. Bees are where plants are where water is.
 

Bees gather honey and help pollination, to grow more food - grain-fruits. In search of flowers they scout hundreds of miles. Great Energy!

Bees build hive, beautiful work of architecture, of natural wax, to live in community, propagate and store honey, and help pollination in plants. Ecology Conservation!

Indeed you can collect honey without killing the Bees of the Hive! Honey goes to Dining table / sick bed! Brokers make money. Economy!

 21st century doesn’t even reach near 'Bee Hive Honey' icon of EEE, a truly relevant model of progress and sustainability that perceptible NATURE displays and offers to so-called intelligent-beings - Humans!.

 Note: The apiary, developed by social workers of an NGO, is in the forest near Lonavala, Maharshtra.
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Cow Dung for Sustenance in India

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 Cow Dung for Sustenance in India

The cow dung (organic manure) helped  us to help grow food in farms and kitchen garden, to cook our food (energy), and helped us to protect our mud houses; thus helped us to sustain (ecology). We used cow dung wash on the floors and walls. Even the ashes from “Chulha” – cooking hearth made out of mud and finished with cow dung wash – were used in the farms to rejuvenate the soil.

And finally the used cow dung in all its forms as a waste went back to the earth.
All the actions predominantly used human energy, besides animal energy, which is abundant in the Third World India. The governments, though, may not acknowledge while craving for fossil fuel and atomic energy sources. Indeed it explains how cow has been sacred to Indic People for millennia.

There is much interest in “cow dung” worldwide, which is welcome sign in view of “carbon tax”. However, the western attitude to recycling cow dung is to use mega industry, mass scale production, centralization... that are basically harmful to very concept of sustainability. (Deceases due to nuclear-electromagnetic radiation,  mad cow disease, Bird flu, Swine-flu etc. HIV-Aids, apart: Some of them travel by airplane.) On the contrary, the “processing” cow dung in India is decentralized at a household level. This, of course, is a matter of lifestyle! How helpless!!

Inevitably the industrial society goes for mass production, be it cattle, pork, meat or poultry for food, or education, or leisure... that leads to centralisation of power. To save environment – energy – ecology the invent machinery that destroys the very purpose of such intention.

Could modern science and technology replicate this cyclic process, by learning from the people, rather than exploiting the Nature, even after so much of their so-called advancement? Could, at least, any economist verify the cost, price, value and benefit of cow dung in terms of Energy-Ecology-Environment at micro-meso-macro levels?   At least I am not aware of any, neither at home or abroad.

Read more on cow dung and its relevance to Life and living:       
1. Clay–Cow dung Grain Silos of Saurashtra, Gujarat
2. Cow dung, Rice and Amartya Sen (a critique): Challenges of 21st Century
3. Collecting cow dung for Energy 3
4. Collecting cow dung for energy 2
5. Collecting cow dung for energy


Remigius d Souza
(18 June 2007)
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Tata's Nano car (Modern Haiku)

Tata's Nano car (Modern Haiku)

Behind your car
I am dragged –
fallen leaves.

(For a farmer even fallen leaves are precious. They burn them to keep warm. It is used as (compost) manure. But in modern India (call her Bharat or Hindustan) modern maharajas – the corporate – like Tatas – have emerged. What value do they have for - whether farmers or fallen leaves? Read more)
(Translation by the author)
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पाचोळा ( आधुनिक हायकू)

तुझ्या मोटारीच्या मागे मागे
येई मी फ़रफ़टत ....
पाचोळा।

(शेताकरयाला पाचोळा फार मोलाचा असतो। त्याची शेकोटी होते। त्याचे शेतासाठी (कम्पोस्ट) खत होते। पण आधुनिक इन्डियात [वाटल्यास भारत म्हणा किंवा हिन्दुस्तान म्हणा] टाटा सारखे आधुनिक राजे महाराजे तयार झाले आहेत। शेतकरी की पाचोळा, त्यांची त्याना काय किंमत ? पुढे वाचा )

२४.८.२००८
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Inflation here – Inflation there

Inflation here – Inflation there

Inflation does not happen: It is not a Natural calamity. Inflation is created by humans, their lifestyles and the market forces. It is created by the misplaced priorities by the dominance of institutions, including the State, that take over the personal and the collective domain of an individual, family, and the society at large. For example: War (in the name of peace) and movies (in the name of entertainment where energy dissipates into smoke).

For ages the Indic peasants have been self-supporting and self-reliant for their needs, and could exercise their autonomy in their personal and collective living. By the standards of contemporary developed societies in the West, they may seem to be poor. Their poverty has been due to the exploitation by the rulers, and the dominant casts and classes, for centuries. Yet they were fairly free in their personal domain.

With the entry of white angles from the West – the East India Company and the British Rule (also read French – Dutch – Portuguese) – their remaining freedom came to an end. Perhaps the final stamp of this end was placed by the Cadastral Surveys the British carried out in the entire country. It also sealed peasants’ autonomy. Thus came into force a new tenure – government land.

It helped the British to consolidate further the centralised power, which was dependant on their military power. Now they had an added tool of power – Revenue Department – the Indian Civil Service (ICS). What is the cultural impact on the agrarian society must also be taken into account, not only economic and administration. The tribal – adivasis – the aborigines – escaped this cultural onslaught, may be to some extent, but they lost the land rights of their habitat – the forest – that went to the Department of Forest


On achieving the Independence, the government of Indian Republic and the provincial governments took over the ready infrastructure and the laws, and followed the foot steps of the past colonial masters. The struggle for Independence thus ended, instead of, now, continuing to investigate, scrutinise and to revamp the established system.

Also there came an end to the pioneering efforts in education, women’s uplift, science, and social reforms etc. that were going along the movement for political independence. The slave mentality of centuries took over again.

Whatever changes that may have taken place during the subsequent years were mostly effected by changing nomenclature – ICS became IAS, writing of the Constitution (which underwent more than 100 amendments. Isn’t it commendable that we learn from the mistakes) and some adjustments and readjustments. But the dragnet of centralised power continued to tighten the peasants – the second class citizens if India.

Free market – liberalisation – globalisation – economic growth – Club Nuke – blah-blah-blah, and very recent one – the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are the pretty pet programmes and policies of the modern First World India, which goes on popping poppy pills of progress that come with consumerism mantra.

Now listen to the music of the perils of the peasants in the Third World India, who produce food for all, are being displaced, marginalised, starving, driven to suicide, while Public Distribution System of essential commodities falter or fail now and then. The food production comes down; the food prices go up.

What would the elevated bureaucrats and the leaders to be the modern-feudal-masters, the Mai-Bap Sarkar, taking the role of Provider, now do? Distribute the dole in cash. The cash though has no tangible value, particularly when the inflation strikes, one after another, by the consumerism mantra, which never comes down in decades. But when the problem is so large and widespread, who could guarantee the dole or development reach to the needy?

The peasants produce food for all: It’s a NEED. None, however, can produce oil – the fossil fuel. They can only extract it from the Earth and process it: It is a WANT of the privileged few; it is not for all. What is the point in shouting green slogans?

‘We must carry our own burden', that’s what my grandma – an illiterate peasant woman – said fifty years ago.

Who does WANT Nuke or Nano? Who doesn't NEED food?
Tell the bright brains of IITs and IIMs to find how to use the billion-people-strong human energy! This is a challenge of 21st Century and the Democracy.
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Remigius de Souza
20-06-2008


© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Grandma's Legacy: a Last or Lost Link? (Comment)

Image Source: Hindustan Times

Grandma's Legacy: A Last or a Lost Link? Thankfully not yet. There is much to savour the legacy my grandmother left for me - for us.
Grandma’s legacy is not a lost link. They found some in Andhra Pradesh – it is everywhere in India – provided you look for it.
They should show these movies to the ruling minority – politicians, bureaucrats, experts, specialists, planners, the educationists and the self-proclaimed leaders, and the urban elite – before showing them to the world.
This “Soil Unrecognized Indian” is now being seen…

More on Grandma's Legacy >>
1. She Lived Her Living Doctrine
2. We must carry our own burden

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Budget India ’08: A grand cover-up act

Budget India ’08: A grand cover-up act:
India’s Budget – A commoner’s View

by Remigius de Souza

Episode: India’s Finance Budget 2008, │ Main Cast: Finance Minister (Fin-Min) P. Chidambaram │ Date: Friday 29 February 2008

India’s Budget – A commoner’s View

The first World India has harnessed so much wealth that it (not she, not Mother India: note it) can waive 60K crore rupees bank-debts to the farmers: indeed a great cover-up. Very, very sexy! As expected it created a great buzz in the media.

The dead-by-suicide farmers and those had paid their loans, and those dying by hunger and malnutrition (reported / unreported) – the second-class citizens, the Third World India (and the Fourth World India) – are redundant.

The peasants and adivasis, displaced due to development euphoria, e.g. special economic zones (SEZs), dump themselves in the slums in metropolises, cities and towns to earn their daily bread with dignity rather than begging, in the past sixty years that still continues, are redundant.

This is apart from atrocities by the ranks and files the fundamentalist, the extremist, the regional/ provincial chauvinist of many colours and shades, the law and order lapses, the black money economy, the scams, rampant bribery and corruption – the man-made calamities that affect the poor most. When there are natural calamities we need foreign aid.


By waiving 60,000 crore rupees debt, the government has not really given the farmers anything tangible. Fin-Min says, it is ‘the accumulated dust’ (Interview, Times of India, March 2, 2008, p.15), perhaps, in the files or the system! No one really knows how many farmers, and where they are? They begin the count now, not when the calamities started.

Engines to uplift the poor

To uplift the poor (they are in great majority) the rulers have devised many engines, in the past and now, of course, with benevolent intentions. The engines, Bharat Nirman (literally Bharat Creation. They conveniently change India to Bharat on occasions: here it actually means the Third World India that also includes the Fourth World India, who are beneficiaries.), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission… to mention a few are from the long list. Several thousand crores of rupees are provided in the budget. But no one knows how these will be managed, who will manage them, and when would they materialise? This is sixty-one years old story. Time now flies faster.

It took sixty years for the rulers of the Republic of India to wake up to the fact (though not fully yet) that neither the great trickle down development/ prosperity nor the great engines, mentioned above, succour the poor (there are about 200 – 300 million persons below poverty line (BPL); their numbers, however, fluctuate with new definitions of BPL devised by the Planning Commission of India, time to time). The great engines remain promises if they fail to deliver results in time bound frame.

They are now devising yet another engine, Monitoring and Evaluation (Ref: Fin-Min’s Budget Speech, 115 and 116) that I quote below:

Monitoring and Evaluation
115. Robust economic growth has thrown up many new challenges, among them the need to put in place effective monitoring, evaluation and accounting systems for the large sums of money that are disbursed by the Central Government to State Governments, district level agencies and other implementing agencies. I think we do not pay enough attention to outcomes as we do to outlays; or to physical targets as we do to financial targets; or to quality as we do to quantity. Government therefore proposes to put in place a
Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System (CPSMS) that will be implemented as a Plan scheme of the Planning Commission. A comprehensive Decision Support System and Management Information System will also be established. The intended outcome is to generate and monitor scheme-wise and State-wise releases for about 1,000 Central Plan and centrally sponsored schemes in 2008-09.

116. Government also intends to strengthen evaluation. Some ministries have started concurrent evaluation. This needs to be supplemented by independent evaluations conducted by research institutions. The Planning Commission will authorise such evaluations of the major schemes and complete the task by the time of the mid-term review of the Eleventh Plan.

For the last sixty years the same stories repeat. The Five Year Plans are not implemented to the end; thousands of court cases remain pending and get accumulated; budgetary provisions are not fully utilized – either because of ignorance of the people or apathy of the executive bodies, or both; money and resources meant for the people do not reach the remote places (not by distance and time). Besides how much, what proportion of the money, provided to make engines work, goes for the executive personnel, and how much is hijacked by the undeserving persons is not known?

But why, why does this happen? Any sane person can tell that there are not enough persons – educated or even literate – motivated / rewarded persons to work in the rural areas.

The second reason: There is no scientific, economic and environmental evaluation of peasants’ work and their form produce. None of the social and natural scientists has done this study in the last hundred years from the late Justice M. G. Ranade to this date (I am ignorant if there is any). We are speaking of organic, labour intensive traditional faming, not mechanised farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead the feudal practices of yesteryear to treat peasants as subjects- now called beneficiaries continue. Are there any exception/s in foreign countries?

The third reason: The ‘haves’ do not want to share with the ‘have not’, their work, knowledge, education, skills and resources, which they monopolize, and which ethically should belong to all: occasionally they give out dole and charities. Why otherwise the planners, experts, policymakers, the creators of great engines to uplift the 80 percent people should fail to deliver?

The reason: They, in the first place, are the products (or victims?) of the great engine of education (that gives them the blinkers of compartments / departments) devised by the British rule. Hence, they continue to copy, collaborate and borrow from the West, and compare with the West, and ironically, also, want to compete with the West on borrowed technologies.

They don’t meet the 80 percent people on equal ground, on one plane. They utterly lack any sense of community participation – the millennia old ancient tradition that still prevails. It could have opened them to many time tested vital aspects of the people’s wisdom, knowledge and skills. The government could learn from the farmer’s action of watering the farms how to save money/resources during their distribution from pilferage and waste.

Even the street vendors (migrated from the hinterland) are better economists and planners; they sustain with right and affordable tools and right place, and don’t miss an opportunity to upgrade. Even a spider knows where and how big or small web it should place. Even a weaver bird (male), knows what resources to use, and where to place his nests; in fact all birds know.

To this date more than 60 percent people are illiterate; in some places, in any of the regions, up to 100 percent illiteracy prevails. This amounts to politics of literacy and politics of education of the First World India by denying the peasants and adivasis the right to education and the right education. Whatever model education they are receiving, if continues, will do more harm to them and the country, both.

The changing times demand appropriate education to all in all 600,000 villages and habitats in India.

"By the direct proportion to places and people in rural India (and the migrants in urban areas), the managers of country’s affairs should have started farming schools, colleges and universities, by the rule of majority then, and now.

As the count goes, the anticipated 600,000 schools should lead to 60,000 colleges and 6,000 universities spread over entire country, all of them from primary to higher education in the farming discipline to enhance the farming skills, knowledge understanding and practices of the people of India’s agrarian society; these must be added with non-formal education. To supplement these, the Farming Training Institutes (FTIs) similar to Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics should be started for the adults and the school dropouts." (Farming and the Politics of Education in India: Challenges of 21st Century)

This must be stupendous job! The present rulers are not even mentally equipped even to think of it because it doesn’t fit their departmental protocol. It demands many disciplines to come together and above all the decentralization of power.

This is only a glimpse into one part of the budget, which is meant for peasants – the unorganized sector the Third World India. There are many aspects besides education that are ailing the peasant in India. The great promises will never work without the people’s participation; but here again the first requisite is the decentralization of power.

The other part of the budget is the reality management of the great realty bazaar of the First world India – the organized sector.

The two parts expose the Bharat – India dichotomy, the promises and the reality – the great Indian divide. Fin-Min’s great cover up act exposes the naked truth. Any half-naked, illiterate, the so-called backward peasant could tell you that, if he could even the text in any language.

The peasants have sustained themselves with their education and within their limited local resources – land and waters – for more than ten thousand years. This place then had no name – India or Hindustan or Bharat, there was no boundaries, and was no civilized society. They had then (as the scientists say) domesticated plants and animals (biotechnology), without any laboratory.

They, we, don’t need either Nuke-deal with the US, or we don’ need to go on the Moon.

We are 1100 million people strong human energy spread over 3,287,263 square kilometers land.

The first step is to put to creative work this immense human energy, and to reach the realities Down to Earth.
Remigius de Souza (06-03-2008)
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.