Durga Prasad Dash's Blog, page 16

The Specialist vs the Polymath: which side are you?

Sherlock Holmes would have nothing to do with information not related to his profession. His companion Dr. Watson is shocked one day when he learns that Sherlock Homes did not know the earth went round the sun.

This fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is an extreme example of specialisation. It means the greatest fictional detective would fail miserably in case he appeared for the selection test of a Lower Division Clerk in modern India. By the way, huge popularity coupled with logical portrayal of Sherlock Holmes has made many believe that such a person actually walked on earth.

Some people take up one field and polish it to the point of achieving excellence in that one field. The proponents of specialisation frown upon people who take up multiple fields and it is such die hard specialists who must have coined the phrase – jack of all trades master of none.

On the other extreme we have examples of real life people like Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a master of many fields. Leonard Da Vinci’s depth and range of interests were amazing. He is not only known for his famous painting Mona Lisa but also for his scientific insights into the human body. He designed bridges and the prototype of a flying machine. He was a sculptor. He wrote scientific theories as well as theories on art and painting. Such persons of varied interests and excellence are known as polymaths or renaissance persons.

The proponents of specialisation dismiss people like Da Vinci as exceptions. They may even tell the following story:

A goose who was plucking grass upon a common thought herself affronted by a horse who fed near her; and, in hissing accents, thus addressed him: “I am certainly a more noble and perfect animal than you, for the whole range and extent of your faculties is confined to one element. I can walk upon the ground as well as you; I have, besides, wings, with which I can raise myself in the air; and when I please, I can sport on ponds and lakes, and refresh myself in the cool waters. I enjoy the different powers of a bird, a fish, and a quadruped.”
The horse, snorting somewhat disdainfully, replied: “It is true you inhabit three elements, but you make no very distinguished figure in any one of them. You fly, indeed; but your flight is so heavy and clumsy, that you have no right to put yourself on a level with the lark or the swallow. You can swim on the surface of the waters, but you cannot live in them as fishes do; you cannot find your food in that element, nor glide smoothly along the bottom of the waves. And when you walk, or rather waddle, upon the ground, with your broad feet and your long neck stretched out, hissing at everyone who passes by, you bring upon yourself the derision of all beholders. I confess that I am only formed to move upon the ground; but how graceful is my make! How well turned my limbs! How highly finished my whole body! How great my strength! How astonishing my speed! I had much rather be confined to one element, and be admired in that, than be a goose in all!”
(Fables from Boccaccio and Chaucer)

Recent proponents of ‘sticking to one thing’ do not rely on anecdotes. They prove their point by using statistics. When you do one task repeatedly it puts your mind on a roll and you can do subsequent tasks with much less mental effort. This will enable you to travel far in one path. When you switch paths your mind will require cope up and recall time and the earlier momentum gained will be lost. The more tasks you switch, the more time you lose in cope up and recall time. Thus one is more likely to achieve success and go far by sticking to one field than by dabbling in multiple fields.

Now let us hear it from the fans of the polymaths. A polymath cannot stick to one thing for the rest of her life even after discovering a field she is passionate about. According to her, creativity is a product of knowledge of cross subjects. The specialist has less chance of finding creative solutions to new challenges, even though she maybe very efficient in carrying out her predetermined job.

Take the case of university professors of literature. Every one of them has done a Ph D which means she is a specialist in some particular aspect of literature. She is very competent in doing her assigned job in teaching. Yet if you take out the list of authors who won nobel prizes in literature hardly any of them was a professor of literature before becoming established as a creative writer.

When I took up economics honours in graduation, after being a front bencher student in Intermediate Science, I realised that one of the functions of a specialist is to first make a simple thing look very complicated and then use complex statistical models to show how it can be solved. Of course being a Mathematics buff in high school I did not find any difficulty in terms of explaining the simple law of supply and demand by complex statistical diagrams. But I was not convinced that we needed such complex statistical treatment to explain an abstract concept of human behaviour that is graspable by our common sense. But if you wanted to score marks you have to elaborate pages after pages with statistics and diagrams as to why an increase in supply would bring down the prices in an pen market.

Another form of the debate is the general practitioner vs. the specialist which is spoken of in the context of the medical profession. The following TED talk video illustrates why it is equally important to be a generalist.

The specialists frown upon the generalists for jumping from one pursuit to another and not sticking to one thing. The generalists in turn find it boring to do the same thing over and over again. But, ultimately I think it depends upon the mental make up of a person. Some people may have the DNA of a specialist while some have that of a generalist. No one is better than the other. Both are just different. Both are needed in the society. Maybe, that is how nature balances out. One should understand one’s DNA in this regard and act accordingly to be more helpful to oneself and to the society.

I used to be jealous of the specialists and quite often I wished I could stick to one thing till rest of my life. Of course when I took up one thing for some time, till I achieved some level of maturity I did it wholeheartedly. But, I could not make myself stick to one thing however hard I tried. Now I don’t regret when I shift from one interest to another knowing that sticking to one thing for the rest of my life is not part of my DNA and it is perfectly alright not to be a specialist.

(In response to Indispire#276)

munna bhai sadak chhap

(30.05.2019 8.58 P.M. It is like deciding in the last moment to appear for the exam. Let me see if In can churn out something on the Indispire Prompt and post it before 9.30 PM. But let me first check to see if someone has already written something on it. Before that let me check who all have become ministers in the Namo Cabinet.)

We had gathered in the morning on a Sunday for a kavi sammelan in Cubbon Park. As I walk back to the parking, I notice a strange vehicle beside my car. I cannot hold myself from peeping inside. Oh My God! Hey Ram! What did I see? A perfect look alike of Mahatma Gandhi? I thought it was someone who has been dressed up for some show. As I withdrew my gaze the figure inside the strange vehicle called me.

“I know what you are thinking? It has happened to me before. I am not a look alike of Karama Chand Gandhi. I am Mohan Das Gandhi. This is a Time Machine built by my friend Albert Einstein. I wanted to travel 25 years ahead but it seems I have travelled much ahead. What year is it?

“2018”, I said.

“I think by mistake I pressed 75 years.”

“Is it really a time machine? I read about it when I was a child.”

“Then I have found the right person. Can we do something to hide this machine? I have another request. Can you take me around this city and get me back here before sun down?”

“Why not Bapu? Anything for you?”

“But you must be a busy man”.

“I will take care of that Bapu”.

Coincidentally I had my car cover in my dicky. Bapu came out of the time machine. It is then that I noticed he was in trousers and T shirt. He put a cap and covered his eyes with black goggles.

After covering the Time Machine, we came out of Cubbon Park. Bapu read aloud the signboard announcing the name of the road. “Mahatma Gandhi Road. Oh! They have named this road after me.”

“Yes Bapu. Not only that the road adjacent is Kasturba Road.”

We crossed Kanteerava Stadium and walked past the Rangoli Art Centre.

“Bapuji this road used to house the most sophisticated shops of the city before malls came up. It used to be frequented by the trendy youths of the city. Now also you can see traces of … “

“You mean to say this place is just the opposite of what I stand for.”

“Exactly.”

“Then, why have they named this Road after me?”

“Bapuji, this is the case not only here but also in almost all Indian cities. MG Road stands for the trendiest place in the city. By the way, Bapu, your revolutionary ideas and experiments were trend setters not only in India but also all over the world. Unfortunately, now we don’t bother about setting trends in terms of our inner world. It all about the outer world.”

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… to be continued

Are Inspirational Books Really Useful?

In my earlier blogpost- do self help books help – I was very critical of the self help books available in the market. Some thought I was a bit too harsh while sharing the uselessness of the majority of the self help books. I was thinking of writing a sequel, and this week’s Insdispire prompt provides the perfect opportunity.

Self help advice is available not only in the form of books but also in the form of motivational videos and blog posts. These days life changing motivational advice even come in tiny homeopathic doses in the form of instapoems.

Self help books and other contents abound because the genre sells. Its popularity may rival that of porn. Why not? Many of the self help books and videos are like porn. They give you a temporary high, but ultimately leave you high and dry.

Among the tons of self help trash there may be a few gems of exceptions. I don’t deny that. This is applicable even to the so called bestsellers.

In fact, ‘instant fund and fame seeking’ authors take to self help books because it is the bestselling genre. They read ten fifteen self help or other books, mix it with some mumbo jumbo and their book is ready. With a little help from the marketing experts the book may even top the charts somewhere to be branded a number one best sellers. These authors are not here to share any authentic experience of their own. Nor do they do any authentic in depth research. That is the reason many self help books feel good to read, but are not really helpful.

In my earlier blog posts I had given the example of Subrat Ray – the scion of Sahara family. While he was in jail for fraudulent financial activities his book – Success Mantra – was becoming a best seller. Fellow blogger Jitendra Mathur has given the example of Shiv Khera who wrote You Can Win. It is a best seller. He became famous because of this book and his motivational talks. Then he tried to lead the nation and change the nation by becoming a political leader. He lost miserably and did not persist to see his dream come true. It shows the efficacy of self help books on the authors themselves. Even the authors of self help books cannot utilise their own methods of success. They cannot walk their talks. How are their advices going to be useful for others?

Another fallacy I have noted is that many books written by American self help gurus are becoming best sellers in India. The cultural milieu plays a great role in personal achievement. Many of the so called insights that these american authors provide are based on the cultural milieu of America. Take for example the book ‘Four Hour Work Week’. I am surprised that this book continues to do well in countries like India. One of the premises of the book is that an American can outsource many of his work to a virtual assistant in India to reduce his time spent on routine and mundane activities. This is affordable even for an average American. As a middle class Indian where are you going to outsource your personal routine jobs?

Another thing worth noting is that the author worked eighteen hours a day to advise us how we can achieve whatever we want just working four hours a week.

Even after such glaring fallacies, the self help industry continues to produce books after books and dominates sale figures. When I tell you it is like porn, I say this from experience. There was a time long ago I too was addicted to self help books. It took me some time to recover from the addiction.

Why do self help books hook us? I think it is because they play upon our greed. They give us the feeling that by working less we can achieve more. They give us the feeling that it is possible to become a millionaire overnight just by following the easy tips they sell us.

Even without self help books we know from common sense that success needs hard work, focus, and dedication. It needs work to mend relationships. It needs integrity to be a leader of standing. Yet somewhere we fall prey to the fallacious short cuts these self help books peddle.

Many self help books advise outright dishonesty and treachery in sophisticated words. They ask you to smile when you don’t feel like it. They emphasise the outer at the cost of the inner. We know that no one achieves greatness by fake smiles. We know that history does not remember those orateor who are only skilled in good oratory without having anything worthwhile to say.

While some self help writers use the contents of other self help books in a modified form, some use the wisdom of ancient books in diluted form. You would see a number of writers using the ancient philosophies of stoics or other western philosophers. There could be some using the philosophies of the east. Some even take their inspiration from Bible or The Gita.

Each system of such ancient wisdom advocates a way of life. For implementing such life changing advice, one must know and understand the philosophy in depth. There is always a danger in trying to implement such systems of philosophy without in depth knowledge. Such ancient philosophies are not quick fixes. These philosophies give us wisdom and insights to see life in a certain way and they must be understood in their totality so as to be made useful for one’s life. How to manage your life is not the same as how to mend a flat tyre. For mending a flat tyre, a few ‘how to’ tips would work. For managing life such diluted versions of ‘how to’ do not work.

Same is the case with those self help authors who rely on the latest developments in psychology. First of all psychology itself is in a developing stage. Everything about mind is not yet discovered. So when someone takes psychological findings as absolute truth to base one’s advice, fallacies may abound.

One who is really serious about changing one’s life would do well to probe deeper into the ancient systems of knowledge than read the diluted versions in self help books.

Self help authors use stories and anecdotes to drive home their points. Stories and anecdotes are tools of persuasion, quite often devoid of any universal truth or principle. Stories and anecdotes have been used since time immemorial to motivate people to act in certain ways that suits the goals of the vested interests, not yours.

Some self help books analyse the actions of successful people and tell us that it was due to such and such factors the person achieved success. The fact is that success never happens in isolation. There are millions of factors that contribute to the success of an event or a person. Each person is a unique individual. Each person’s motivation is different, cultural background is different. But some self help books make it look simple by having us believe such and such person achieved his goal by doing such and such and you can also do the same things and achieve the result by doing what he did. If that were the case successful people would always be successful.

The fallacies in each of the best seller self help book could be discerned on closer examination. Let me take one book for example- The Four Hour Work Week. I have already mentioned that the author worked eighteen hours a day when he was writing this book. Another anomaly is that the book is written primarily for the American audience but is a best seller even in India.

First of all the title ‘Four Hour Work Week’ is a negative connotation. You would like to have a four hour work week when the work you do is a tedious one. If it is a tedious one why to do such work at all? Why not find work that is interesting? Why not find work which lets you forget how many hours you have worked. If Bill Gates had worked four hours a week on computer coding, such a book as the ‘Four Hour Work Week’ could be possible only in the next century.

The author of ‘Four Hour Work Week’ is also famous for suggesting ways to do and learn things fast. The author asks you not to learn anything until the need arises. It makes sense going by the philosophy of the author. Since you can learn any thing in no time what is the use of learning something until the D-day arrives?

I don’t think important things of life can be learnt quickly. Great poets are not made in a day. In depth knowledge in any thing needs time. Our mind is not like a computer where any amount of data can be downloaded and processed in a few hours. Mind needs time to mature and make sense of things. Only artificial things or petty tips like how to mend a punctured tyre can be learned from a how to do manual in a few minutes. A life in disarray is not something like a punctured tyre to be repaired after following a how to do manual for a few minutes.

In short, if you are really interested in leading a meaningless artificial life with a view to make a few quick bucks for short term benefits by using the short cuts, drifting from task to task, having an artificial sense of euphoria while reading such books with the fallacious belief that life can be changed or you would be successful in all areas of your life by following such cheap tips and tricks peddled by books like the Four Hour Work Week, please go ahead and indulge yourself in the plethora of self help books flooding the market.

All said and done I would not like to end this rant filled post with a bitter note. Let me share two of the books that I have found useful. There are many books I have found useful. But here I will share about two books. The first one is the Bhagavad Gita and the second one is ‘Outliers’. I would not give any diluted outline of these books. I would rather urge those who are interested to study these two books seriously and reflect upon the contents. Both the books are not devoid of flaws. But the wisdom of these two books would far outweigh their flaws.

Both these books highlight the role of dedicated, focussed hard work. One of the often quoted slokas of the Gita is – karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana – commit to the action without attachment to its fruit. In fact the ancient stoic philosophers held a similar view. They advised to take care of what is in control not be concerned with what is beyond one’s purview of control. You effort is under your control but not the outcome which is dependent upon many other factors. Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’ talks about the ‘ten thousand hours rule’, which propounds that for excellence in any field you need at least ten thousand hours of deliberate practice. Of course the theory has been challenged recently. But the importance of dedicated work to achieve anything can never be challenged. Both the books I have recommended provide useful insights into the nature of our life and mind which I have found to be true. After all, the hallmark of any useful book is how near it is to truth.

In spite of our realisation that self help books provide a temporary high and ultimately leave us dry, the self help industry will continue to thrive in the years to come, as will be the porn industry. That is one more reason I have compared popular self help literature with porn.

[image error][image error]

(In response to Indispire #274 suggested by Vartika Goyal)

the gladiators of our times

Psychologists say that at our core, we homo sapiens are still the hunter -gatherers that evolved seventy thousand years back to inherit the earth. They are still searching for direct evidence to corroborate their theories. But after watching a number of movies, documentaries, and web serieses based on the public entertainment of roman civilisation and comparing these with modern forms of games like the IPL, one can safely conclude that human society’s core cravings and values have hardly changed over the last two millennia.

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The gladiators were bought and sold. The people who owned and managed them were people of some standing in the Roman Society. The fortune of these owners depended upon the performance of their gladiators.

Gladiators who brought glory were elevated to the status of Gods. Women swooned over them. Past winners were welcomed to loud cheers and chants of their name. Past losers or perspective losers were booed by the crowd. Those who lost sank into oblivion. In fact, the majority of them were killed in the arena itself to the loud and hysterious chants of the crowd whose thirst for blood knew no bounds.

I need not describe the IPL for the Indian audience. Of course, IPL players are not killed on the spot. But consistent losers sink into oblivion over time.

I am a staunch opposer of Cricket as I believe the game has killed our chances of shining at real international games and sports like the Olympics. I would wish otherwise but the hue and cry over IPL refuses to mellow down over the years.

Hard as I may try, it is difficult to avoid not watching cricket or not discussing cricket. Without some knowledge about the current state of affairs of the cricket universe, as an Indian man you have a high chance of being branded a moron in social gatherings where people take pride in displaying their analytical skills about the game.

Occasionally I used to watch the live telecast of IPL and other forms of cricket. Once I had the misfortune of going to the stadium. The IPL is held at a time when there is high chance of rain in Bengaluru. As expected it rained. But as a saving grace the match was reduced to ten overs a side.

One thing got me irritated from the beginning was the noise. It was not only coming from the crowd but also from the loud speakers which were set at decibel levels beyond the tolerance level of the human ears. I don’t know if I was the only one sensitive to this. I regret that in preparation for watching the IPL upclose I did not deafen my ears a little bit to make it more tolerant to the noise.

Some had come with their just born babies. First I thought these parents were doing great damage to the delicate ears of their babies. But then, what can be a more appropriate training than IPL in the art of facing an increasingly noisy world.

Men and machines toiled hard to erase the mark of rain and make the ground playable. Umpires were satisfied with the pitch and players gathered. Batsman took their position as did the fielders. The first bowler started from his mark and dashed with his usual threatening gesture. At the bowling mark, as he raised his hand to release the ball, the audience in our front rows got up with raised flags in a frenzy and blocked the view of the pitch. I wondered what was happening in the pitch now hidden from my view.

When they sat down the bowler was ready for the second ball. I looked at the giant electronic screen to know what had happened but unfortunately it was busy playing some advertisement. So next time when the bowler was ready to throw the ball, instead of looking at the ass and flags of my front row audience, I decided to look at the screen to know what was happening at the pitch.

Finally, I realised I had come all the way spending eight hours of my day to watch a one hour match, on a bigger television screen than the one at my home, and putting my ears and my sanity to great risk.

[image error]IPL crowd



[image error]gladiator crowd

speak, so that we understand your silence

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Long long ago
half a millennia before Jesus was born
a prince went away
far from the madding crowd
to find answers to the questions
that would not let him sleep
that would not let him live
or die.
 
After six years of travelling and searching
one day
he gave up his efforts and fell
deep into silence.
He became one with the silence of the  Bodhi tree.
He became one with the flow of the river nearby.
He became one with the vastness of the moon drenched  night
where there was not even a bat
to hang upside down and cry.
 
The elusive answers  
found roots in silence
and spread out to reach the heavens
where the angels were alarmed
that even after knowing
he would not speak.
They said,
What are you doing?
You are the chosen one.
Come on.
You must speak.
He said,
What is the use?
Those who know
would not need me,
and those who don’t
would not believe.
 
They said,
We agree with you.
There are some who know
and some who have decided not to know.
But there are many
who want to know
but are afraid of the fall into silence .
They need that gentle push.
So speak.  
Speak, so that they understand your silence.
 
He spoke
and human history took a different turn.
 
In English there is a saying
Silence is Golden.
No it is not.
When leaders make us suffer for their personal gain
or are incompetent,
it is time to speak and speak out loud.
 
When you hear the scream of the woman next door
being beaten black and blue by her drunken husband,
silence is not the option.
 
When you see a policeman
beating a passer by
for no apparent reason,
silence is not the option.
 
When you see a woman
is teased or molested
or in the worst case
is being dragged to be raped,
silence is not the option
 
In Sanskrit there is a saying
Maunam Sammati Lakshanam
which means
to be silent is a sign of acceptance;
which means
when you remain silent
in the face of injustice,
you are a partner in crime  

(Coincidentally, today is Buddha Purnima. But, it seems even Google Doodle has no knowledge of this)

The age of content overload

This post is in response to not only indspire #273 prompt but also the blog posts written by fellow indibloggers on the topic suggested by Dr. Rekha Rani.

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It is interesting to note that fellow bloggers have examined the topic from various angles. I have also put my views as comments on their blog posts. So this post is a hotchpotch of those comments. To make it a little more palatable I will also give a gist of their views.

Veteran blogger Sreedhar Bhattaram is of the view that every one has a unique story to tell and the story must be shared for the benefit of the society. He also says that it is real life that gives a fertile ground for learning and Books are not the only source.

No doubt Everyone has a story to tell and should try to transmit the wisdom. In olden days knowledge passed in oral tradition. Transmitting knowledge orally is easier than doing it in writing. When you speak, certain aspects like grammar etc. are ignored. Also, while speaking you use gestures to make up for lack of words and sometimes to emphasise your points. But while writing, one has to be exact and write in such a manner that the readers get your meaning as nearly as possible to your intended thought. Many people have great ideas and thoughts but they may find it difficult to express in writing. Like movies, writing is a medium of transmission of thought, information, and feelings. It is as much an art as science. Every writer should not only respect the basic rules of writing like grammar, sentence structure etc., but also write in such a manner that the reader finds it interesting and not much difficult to understand. While real knowledge comes from real life, the art of writing comes from reading and practice in writing.

You have brought out different motives associate with writing like one can write for oneself that is writing can be a form of catharsis and it need not always be out of the primary need to be read by millions.
In fact there is nothing alarming about having more and more writers.

Tomichan Matheical has highlighted the importance of reading for a writer. Even I used to ignore this facet in my initial days when somehow I wanted to become a writer. Subsequently I realised how important reading is to writing. As he has rightly said people who rush in to become authors without depth in reading produce trash.

It is important to not only read more, but also to read quality literature. Another aspect he has brought out is about the importance of reading classics. In every age lots of trash must have been written. But some books stood the test of time, those books of bygone era are the so called classics. So without doubt one can conclude that to read classics is definitely not a waste of time.

Suman Deb Ray cautions publishers against replicating the success of a few mediocre books reaching the status of best sellers. I have come across a number of such books displayed at vantage points of prominent book stores.

In India the tag best seller is increasingly being associated with mediocrity. Even I found one such book full of grammatical and other silly language based errors giving out the impression that you do not need to have mastery over the language to produce best sellers for Indian readers. It even need not be proof read or edited properly.

Dr. Rekha Sahay thinks it is immaterial whether there are more readers or writers. It is good news that more and more people are taking to writing. Somewhat similar view is expressed by Parwati Singari when she says writing for some could be an end in itself. It could be a kind of cathartic experience for the writer and thus writing has great utility whether it is being read by others or not. If others read, it is like sone pe suhaga.

I think the need of the hour is to make the younger generation interested in reading and writing and to encourage them to reduce time spent on social media and youtube. Seen from this angle, more and more people should be encouraged to take up writing without worrying about their quality of writing in the short run.

Abhijit Ray has pointed out the anomaly of assuming having more writers than readers since reading and writing are closely connected. According to him:

One cannot deny that as more and more authors create content the quality may suffer. It is however, the choice of readers. If readers do not find a content appealing they may not read. At the same time, those who write does not mean that they do not read. Reading and writing cannot be mutually exclusive.

Arvind Passey has given some interesting statistics about the growth of the publishing industry. According to him there is nothing disastrous in having more books published while there are too few serious readers. According to his reliable astrologer, “… every book is born with its set of readers already decided by the stars. No book vanishes into eternity before its task is completed.”

I wonder what
could the intention of a reputed author like Ruskin Bond be when he sounded the
alarm bell. First of all is there really an alarm bell? As my blogger friends
have pointed out from different angles there is nothing to be alarmed even if
such a scenario arises.

I feel the
traditional publishers and authors are perhaps worried about the self
publishing industry, which is eating into their pie. Books are not the only
source of reading. Internet and social media has opened plethora of avenues for
the aspiring writer. Mr Ruskin Bond perhaps is pointing out to all the contents
available waiting to be read.

But then,
traditional publishing made it difficult for new and unknown writers to see
their work published in spite of having merit. As Mr. Ray has pointed out on
his blog post if there is more content than needed, it is upto the reader to
make the choice.

I feel writers
like Ruskin Bond need not necessarily be alarmed. Of course, if traditional
authors are worried about their own market share being reduced due to the
advent of self publishing and other easy publishing platforms, that is another
story.

To me what is
alarming is that the young generation is spending more time on audio visual
mediums like youtube even to learn their school and college lessons. To gain in
depth knowledge in a subject one has to study and no audio visual media can
replace this.

On one hand we
have exponential growth in availability of content for reading. On the other
hand there is exponential decline in reading habits among the young generation.
That is something to be worried about.

Our focus
should not be whether we have more writers or less writers.

Our focus should be to make the young generation interested in quality books.
The good thing is that quality reading material is available for public
consumption as never before.

About the issue
of content overload, market forces and various other factors will make sure
quality content stands out and survives the ravages of time.

In search of the Missing Father

[image error]Robert Bly – Poet, Essayist, and Activist

Modern civilization is more cruel to men than women – not from a misogynistic point of view. This is a recurring theme of the poetry of Robert Bly who is also an activist and a therapist.

In the days of yore when there was no formal schooling, knowledge passed down in oral tradition either from the father or from a father figure. Along with knowledge one important thing that passed down was – manhood. A father figure was responsible to convert the boy to man. A mother or a motherly figure cannot do this.

In some ancient traditions still they do this. After a certain age the boy is forcefully taken away from the mother and kept surrounded by men for months. When the transformation happens he is brought back to live in his family.

These days fathers rarely talk to their sons. Back from office the father is too tired to take interest in the affairs of the son. The son is too busy with his friends and his toys to show any interest in communicating to his father unless he needs a new toy. Of course the mother- son relation has still continued over the years. But the mother cannot convert the boy to a man.

In contrast, girls don’t face the same problem. They are not cut off from the line of communication from their mothers, or motherly figures. Mothers are in regular conversation with both their sons and daughters. But, the modern father remains an elusive figure. He does not spend the quality time necessary to convert the boy to a man. In school his teachers are not interested in transmitting anything other than the impersonal knowledge which is part of the school curriculum.

Another distinction that Robert Bly makes between the maturity of men and women is that while women must come to term with pain to be mature in their being, men must experience grief and come to terms with it.

Thus according to Bly, the breakdown of ancient societies has been devastating to the male sapiens. Mothers have tried to substitute for the absence of the father figure with a result that men are becoming softer and losing the capacity to lead the society.

In contrast, the female of the species does not have this disadvantage in modern age. First of all nature itself provides the opportunity to women to be aware of their bodies during their menstrual cycle. Unlike men, women don’t behave like the absent mothers even though many of them may be working mothers these days.

American poet Robert Bly was born in 1926 and as of date he is one of the few surviving poets of that age. In his lengthy career as a poet, translator and essayist he has authored more than fifty books. His book Iron John : a book about men was a New York Times bestseller.

He is one of the leading poets who popularised Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, and Mira in the west. Not satisfied with the available translations of Rumi, he inspired Coleman Barks to do justice in translating Rumi. The translations of Coleman Barks are considered the most authentic ones among many versions of Rumi available in English.

Apart from popularising Kabir and Meera to the western audiences, Robert Bly’s Indian poetic connection is derived from his support to the Hungrialists of Bengal who were facing prosecution for their anti government stances. He was also a vocal opponent of Americas’ war in Vietnam and mobilised artists and poets for the protests.

Robert Bly’s love of persian poetry goes beyond his translations and essays. He has himself written a lot of poems in the Ghazal format like the following one:

The Night Abraham Called to the Stars

Do you remember the night Abraham first saw
The stars? He cried to Saturn: "You are my Lord!"
How happy he was! When he saw the Dawn Star,

( read the full poem in author's official site)

What impressed me the most after listening to his talks and going through some of his poems are his attempts to demystify the mystic elements of poetry and give a new meaning to the fairy tales, thus making both the mystic poems of the east and the age old fairy tales of the west more relevant to the new generation.

Here is another of his talks that I found interesting:

This is the fourth in my series of posts about poets and poems. Here are the previous posts of the series:

https://durgadash.com/2019/04/27/haldhar-nag-ordinary-villager-extraordinary-poet/

https://durgadash.com/2019/04/15/the-mendicant-mystics-and-their-songs-of-being-human-poems-and-poets-2/


https://durgadash.com/2019/04/10/of-poets-and-poems-1-upendra-bhanja/

of ignorance

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In Yogasutras, Maharishi Patanjali talks of five causes of misery – avidya, asmita, raga, dwesha and  avinibesha. Avidya which means  ignorance as well as wrong knowledge comes first. It is in fact the cause for other succeeding four causes, which means the primary cause of any kinds of misery is avidya.

Avidya is the primary cause of not only all individual ills, but also all social maladies, all conflicts, and misunderstandings. One of the root causes why people are brainwashed to become suicide bombers for a better afterlife is that people are exposed only to a particular kind of education repeatedly. When we have a broad based education system students will have a different perspective. They may stop believing in imaginary concepts of heaven and hell. They may also be able to see the good things in other faith systems and will not turn into fanatics.

One tends to reject and ridicule things because one knows nothing about them. That was the reason Indian culture and spirituality was not held in high esteem for a long time in the west. Barring a few scholars, the majority of the British who came to India never took any interest to understand the rich Indian heritage and culture. One of the British authorities, after visiting the Rath Yatra of Puri made derogatory remarks about the rituals, even adding the epithet ‘diabolic’ to the huge idols. Simply because he had not come across such a ritual in his own country or his own religion, another’s ritual becomes ‘diabolic. Had he taken a little pain to understand the culture of Sri Jagannath, he would have stood in awe in stead of defaming the ritual. In the same way some Indians dismiss everything from western countries as being evil, corrupt and an attack on our great culture.

Chauvinism, fanaticism, self aggrandizement etc. are all products of ignorance. During Hitler’s time people were deliberately led to believe whatever was fed into their minds by restricting information.  They read only what Hitler wanted them to read. So people grew up believing theirs was the superior most race. A similar thing is happening in North Korea where people are deliberately exposed to selective information.

At the individual level, scriptures declare that man is miserable because he is ignorant of his true nature. It is only the veil of ignorance that separates the enlightened from the unenlightened. In Bhagavat Gita Arjuna finally, with the help Lord Krishan  – who was his charioteer, friend, mentor and Guru all rolled into one –  got rid of his ignorance and realized his own true nature.

The advaita philosophy as propounded in the Yoga Vashistha repeatedly emphasize that the world of appearance is a bondage for the ignorant only. For the one who is awakened in knowledge, there is eternal freedom.

On the other hand some think that ignorance is bliss. But such kind of bliss is out of stupidity. The bliss of stupidity and ignorance does not last long.

However if one wants to forever remain in the bliss of ignorance one may follow the American writer Elbert Hubbard who said –

“The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.”

But does knowledge really liberate? What are your views?

sweet absence

It would be good to end the poetry writing month at least with one poem. I don’t hail from any native Hindi Speaking region. Apart from learning the Hindi Alphabets sometime in Class VI, Bollywood has been my Hindi Pathsaala. This is my attempt at translating one of my poems into Hindi. This poem originally titled ‘Your Sweet Absence’ was first published in my book of poems – ‘teach me to dream’. Now the revised version of the book is published with a new title – ‘Verses in Idleness‘.

A lot of thanks to Mrs. Nilima Kanth for making necessary grammatical corrections and editing and for rendering the poem in Devnagari script.

एक मिठास भरा अनुपस्थिति



निमंत्रण अभी आया ही नहीं
फिर भी तैयार हूं मैं
निर्लज्ज , निर्वस्त्र
मति - गति - खो गयी हूं मैं।

मुझे पता नहीं निर्वाण क्या है
मोक्ष क्या है
तुम्हारे बांसुरी की
कहीं न कहीं से ध्वनि के लिए
तरसते हैं मेरे कान।

तुम्हारे क्षणिक सान्निध्य के लिए
गिरती हूं मैं
गिराती हूं मैं
अपने आपको
बार - बार , कई बार।

यमुना के कृष्ण जल
तुम्हारे याद दिलाते हैं
निराशा भी
अब तो बस एक सपना सा
यमुना के रेत पर
तुम्हारे चरण का स्पर्श होना।

तुम्हारे साथ - साथ
तुम्हारी बांसुरी भी मायाबी
फिर भी तुम बजाते रहो
तुम्हारे मिठास भरा अनुपस्थिति को
कौन रोक सकता है !!!



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Haldhar Nag : Ordinary Villager – Extraordinary Poet

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

The above lines of William Blake could be used to describe one of the functions of poetry as well. The poet makes us see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower. She makes us feel the infinity in our limited body and experience the eternity in a moment.

Everyone comes across flashes of poetic truth at some point or other. Such moments do not last long. But an effective poet can captures these fleeting moments and clothe them with words to give us glimpses into his poetic truth and make us live those moments again and again.

The other day when I was reading the poem ‘The old Banyan Tree’ by Haldhar Nag, it made me re-live those moments of childhood in my native village. The Banyan Tree near my village pond was so much part of our daily routine.

Some of my readers might have already heard his name especially after he was honoured with the Padmashri in 2015. Still then, let me give a brief introduction about the poet.

Sri Haldhar Nag has written three epics and hundreds of poems so far. He writes in the western Odisha dialect known as Koshali or Sambalpuri. He has formal education only upto class three. Nevertheless, his works are going to be part of University syllabus and a number of students are writing doctorate thesis on his poetry.

He was born in a village called Ghens in the Bargarh district of western Odisha in the year 1950. He could not continue his studies due to the death of his parents and financial difficulties. He took up odd jobs like washing utensils and cooking to support himself and his family. Through all these difficulties he kept up with his love of poetry and worked for it.

In 1990 he submitted his first poem to a local magazine and it was accepted. There after he became active in local poetry events and became very popular in the region. A large number of people used to attend his poetry readings. To spread his message through his poetry he used to travel from place to place in his bicycle, attired in the simple villager’s dress – no shoes or shirt, only a dhoti and a thin towel to cover his upper body.

He still does that. At first glance, the staff at Ahsoka Hotel, New Delhi had a hard time believing that he was one of the persons authorised to stay in the hotel as a Padma Awardee.

By the way, the poem about the Banyan Tree that I mentioned earlier was the first poem of Haldhar Nag to be published. Here is a video of the poem being recited by him.

In this poem he portrays the Banyan Tree as a silent witness of all the drama that happens in the village through multiple generations. Sometimes marriage negotiations happen under its shade. Sometimes thieves come and sit under the tree to share their booty. The Banyan Tree stands there like a Yogi, not able to speak.

The Banyan tree also becomes a metaphor of the witness consciousness in us. To be established in ‘the witness consciousness’ without being perturbed by positive or negative things happening to us is the central message of The Bhagavat Gita.

Here is a short documentary in Hindi about him.

Here is an important take away from the life of Sri Haldhar Nag. In spite of lack of resources and a thousand other obstacles, if one has the passion and the perseverance, excellence cannot keep away for long.