English Literture and Silence

The times, they are a changing. Jispa has been studying regularly and I too have been studying along with her. No this time around its not me studying thanks to her but I am genuinely studying for a damn exam that I have to give. In the insurance industry one has to give some relevant exams if one has to represent the firm in various forums. This Saturday Jispa and I, both sat to study on the dining table. I found myself studying seriously, very seriously. I studied the whole day and finished one book of three that I needed to. It was quite surprising. I hate studying and I hate exams and I can’t bear to give any other one anymore.

The last time I gave a test professionally was around 15 years ago when in the broking industry there was a need for certification. I hated the feeling and I never understood why I should be the one giving the exams. They were meant for the sales and the dealers, not marketing professionals. The only reason the CEO made it compulsory for all, was that each certification was compulsory for each terminal and we needed as many as we could get. The stupid dealers were not competent by themselves to pass these tests and hence it was compulsory for all. He had made it a mandatory thing if you want your bonus.

Even then, studying without a purpose is a complete burden on yourself. I just found it difficult to sit down, remove time and study. But this time around things are different. I don’t know. Possibly because it’s a start up and hence there is a greater sense of a shared vision in me or because it’s just that I am older and saner and wiser and I realize that I have to pass this exam, I am studying religiously. I took a pen and the book and went through the whole book word by word. I took in time to understand the syllabus and try and remember the key points. At the end of the day, it wasn’t a chore; there was something more to it.

Jispa has also been studying like it’s serious business. For her studying is not a bore. She is right now amazing me by making notes of what she needs to study and she is carrying her books everywhere. Yesterday while we sat at the Starbucks at a mall, she was busy making her biology notes. I was talking to her, that I was never ever as serious as her about studying and looking at her makes my heart feel very warm. She is putting pressure on her own to study and do well. She wants to study. I told her that I think that, one of the big factors is also what she is studying. The style of teaching, the text books, the ability to put thought, the teachers, everything is so amazing that you feel like studying. I had a shit load of everything and my life was all about mugging up. That was studying. No application of brain or thought or out of the box thinking in an exam. Just shut up and vomit your brain of all the unwanted shit as fast as possible. If you met me 24 hours after an exam, I wouldn’t have even been able to recollect most of the syllabus. I remember cramming formulas seconds before the exam and running inside the class and writing it on the answer sheet, first thing. Then you can refer to it when you want, as you want.  That was my studies.

Jispa has been writing amazing things for her favorite English literature subject. We share a lot of time discussing stuff about how to interpret her English poetry. The other thing we also spend time over is listening to her music. I am trying to connect to it and am making an effort to listen to it. It’s been largely rewarding. I too have been trying to get out some old songs and getting her to listen to it. One song that V-inu played when we were at his place and which came up in the listening list on internet radio was ‘The sound of silence’ which was re-sung as a cover by Disturbed. It’s an amazing version with a really gruff voice of a rock singer. When melody meets a gruff voice and some tempo changing, it makes for a compelling listening.

Here you judge

But while you do so remember the original by Simon and Garfunkel. It’s a lovely one with the melody coming in through the strumming of the acoustic guitar and the vocals in chorus.

You decide which one is the better one!

But the point is not the music, but the juxtaposition of the poetry. With Jispa and me talking music and English, such music with amazing lyrics suddenly has far more meaning that simple melody

"The Sound Of Silence"

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

No one dare

Disturb the sound of silence

“Fools” said I, “You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you”

But my words like silent raindrops fell

And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

And the sign said “The words of the prophets

Are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls

And whispered in the sounds of silence”

Tell me it’s not poetry and tell me it’s not literature. Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other”

We look at songs as lower art than poetry and pop songs as the way lower. I have argued that pop songs that fire a population’s imagination are as much literature as anything else. I have argues way back in my blog piece ( http://jaimit.blogspot.in/2009/07/time-to-change-times.html ) that Bob Dylan should be taught in schools and then, recently, it gave me joy to know that he got the Nobel Prize for literature. While there has been enough criticism on this, I firmly support the move. It brings song writers within the realm of serious literature. If Shakespeare would have been alive, would we have given him the Nobel or would we have told him that an Oscar is at best what he can do?

The Nobel prize allowed Jispa and me to revisit our friend Dylan while we were returning in the car. She put the music on as we listened to the times, they are a changing’ and “blowin in the wind”. She took my phone and searched for the lyrics online while the song was playing, enjoying the poetry in the composition as much as the melody.  Who knew English syllabus and Music would merge?

 Now that is song writing! If that doesn’t deserve the Nobel then what does.

A Nobel prize is a cash award for sure, it’s a recognition of the individual for sure, but more than anything, its role is to inspire many more to either emulate and try and achieve or simply still, follow the work being done in order to understand and imbibe. Because simple money can come in the form a grant, but real difference comes from the inspiration that recognition brings about. That is the true value of a Prize, especially if it is as big the Nobel Prize.

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End bonus video of the "Disturbed" singer on singing the Sound of Silence.

to believe or not to believe

The last lecture someone asked me about the posturing that India Pakistan was doing across borders. There was a terrorist attack on a military base in India and India retaliated by conducting ‘surgical’ strikes across the border on alleged camps. Uff… that was just the thig to get me started off. A long short history about right wing governments versus leftists and the centers. How right wing governments thrive on conflict and the perceived threat perception from an outsider.

I just explained how the marketing theory will typically right wing governments. Why there is always some escalation of conflict that rallies a population when right wingers are in power. For some reason – there was Kargil war after which in the election they could cobble up a majority for a relatively stable coalition.

 In the second term there were the ‘attacks’ on the Indian Parliament. Some believe that these were staged.

I quote from an article published here

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/afzal/afzal13.htm

“We know this much: On December 13, 2001, the Indian Parliament was in its winter session. (The NDA government was under attack for yet another corruption scandal.) At 11.30 in the morning, five armed men in a white Ambassador car fitted out with an Improvised Explosive Device drove through the gates of Parliament House. When they were challenged, they jumped out of the car and opened fire. In the gun battle that followed, all the attackers were killed. Eight security personnel and a gardener were killed too.

The dead terrorists, the police said, had enough explosives to blow up the Parliament building, and enough ammunition to take on a whole battalion of soldiers. Unlike most terrorists, these five left behind a thick trail of evidence – weapons, mobile phones, phone numbers, ID cards, photographs, packets of dry fruit, and even a love letter.

Not surprisingly, PM A.B. Vajpayee seized the opportunity to compare the assault to the September 11 attacks in the US that had happened only three months previously.

On December 14, 2001, the day after the attack on Parliament, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police claimed it had tracked down several people suspected to have been involved in the conspiracy. A day later, on December 15, it announced that it had "cracked the case": the attack, the police said, was a joint operation carried out by two Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Twelve people were named as being part of the conspiracy. Ghazi Baba of the Jaish (Usual Suspect I), Maulana Masood Azhar also of the Jaish (Usual Suspect II); Tariq Ahmed (a "Pakistani"); five deceased "Pakistani terrorists" (we still don't know who they are). And three Kashmiri men, S.A.R. Geelani, Shaukat Hussain Guru, and Mohammed Afzal; and Shaukat's wife Afsan Guru. These were the only four to be arrested.

In the tense days that followed, Parliament was adjourned. On December 21, India recalled its high commissioner from Pakistan, suspended air, rail and bus communications and banned over-flights. It put into motion a massive mobilisation of its war machinery, and moved more than half-a-million troops to the Pakistan border. Foreign embassies evacuated their staff and citizens, and tourists travelling to India were issued cautionary travel advisories. The world watched with bated breath as the subcontinent was taken to the brink of nuclear war. (All this cost India an estimated Rs 10,000 crore of public money. A few hundred soldiers died just in the panicky process of mobilisation.)”

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And then somewhere else in the article she argues

“On the basis of this illegal confession extracted under torture, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were moved to the Pakistan border at huge cost to the public exchequer, and the subcontinent devolved into a game of nuclear brinkmanship in which the whole world was held hostage.

Big Whispered Question: Could it have been the other way around? Did the confession precipitate the war, or did the need for a war precipitate the need for the confession?”

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Whatever the truth, after the attack, the Indian army saw a mobilization where two nuclear powers eye balled each other https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%E2%80%9302_India%E2%80%93Pakistan_standoff

Wow. That was two nuclear powers eye balling each other! Let that sink in for some time.

Now this time around as well, we have some posturing and in the ‘surgical’ strike one army crossed the border, ‘destroyed’ camps and came back. This was celebrated in the media and everyone in India rejoiced that finally as a country we have teeth. Jingoism all around you!

And now look at the centrist party. When they came to power, they implemented socialist schemes with a gusto. Right to education, right to food and right to employment. The last one was “MNREGA – the world’s largest workfare programme - formed the backbone of the UPA government’s anti-poverty programme, and may well represent its most important legacy in the long run.”

 - See more at: http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=292#sthash.1WVnU4gw.dpuf”

In the last paragraph the article states “It is no surprise therefore that MNREGA helped UPA gain re-election in the 2009 general elections. There is detailed RD-based evidence showing that UPA reaped electoral benefits from rolling out MNREGA in 2009, and that MNREGA budgetary allocations across districts and blocks have been manipulated in certain states to increase these benefits. “

So yes in the end, it’s up to you to weigh the substance of the propaganda and the schemes thrown at you. You can’t accept anything blindly.

I explained all of this to the class. In marketing I keep teaching, the first thing is to understand yourself and your brand and understand what it is that you are selling. Similarly if you are a consumer, you have to understand who is it that is selling something to you. What they seem to be selling versus what they are selling. Political parties are amongst the most dependent on marketing for survival. They have to understand their core philosophy so as to keep their core base intact and after that they go after the fence sitters. Without a detailed and vivid understanding of who they actually are, no political party can hope for long term survival. Funnily worldwide the philosophies seem to converge across three types – viz right left and center. The core principals are also very similar across. Rights tend to favor minimal government and are pro-business, while the center tries to lean left and increase governance and welfare for the underprivileged. The left of course, worldwide is stupidly rigid and completely veering towards state owned. You can understand world economics, trade, politics and news through the interplay of these thoughts and ideals.

So when the world is going bonkers and you have strong ideas on what is wrong and right and you want to box the crap out of your neighbors, sure, do so, but think again. Or as Arundhati Roy in the article says very very nicely – “To hang Mohammed Afzal without knowing what really happened is a misdeed that will not easily be forgotten. Or forgiven. Nor should it be.

Notwithstanding the 10% Growth Rate.”

The last line is the hardest hitting one that she has written. It’s a dig at the right wing which normally is super pro-business and pro-growth. The growth rate is an important metric on which they win votes and allegiance.

Yes – you have the freedom to vote right, left or centre. You have and must exercise the freedom to shout slogans, support war, surgical strikes, place of worship or whatever you want to do in a peaceful non violent way. You have the right to spew vitriol and choose sides. But all I tell the kids that I teach – listen carefully, not just to the message but also to the carrier and the originator? Within this itself there are many, multiple agendas. Look carefully!

It also amazes me that how much of a pacifist I have become. From a mother India lover who wanted to join the army and serve the motherland, I have become a skeptic. The fun bit is that I don’t know when this happened. No I am not disillusioned with the politicians of the country. That doesn’t work me up. We deserve the jokers we elect. Public service is very difficult, taxing and definitely not rewarding (if you are honest). We make life difficult for the guys doing public service. We believe that all problems come to their doorstep and we absolve ourselves of any solution. It also doesn’t help that most people in public service drive their own agendas and their own ways of doing things. They don’t allow for participation and block everything else. But yes, people inherently are to blame for the shit they get.

I have been involved with the Swimming pool of the gymkhana as an office bearer. It is a dam tough thing to do. People have strong agendas and counter agendas. They don’t help when needed but come across to criticize whatever you do. I think a few years of public service should be a must for anyone. Once that’s done you will do a better job of discharging your duties as a citizen, benefitting the collective whole.

But yes – I have over a period of time become an agno- nationalist. I don’t care about your nationality or mine. What I care about is how humans react to one another and treat each other. How people have to get involved in how they debate and conduct themselves in public. These are simple and important principals from which I want to draw the line. I love my city and my country but not in a jingoistic way. I love how my culture and my thought has been shaped by our geography and our history. I know what I am by knowing my past. But I also know that I have to shape my future and that of the generations to come from me. It cannot be shaped by propaganda but by listening to logic and to question everything. It can come from a deeper understanding of people and their emotions and their selfish interests. It comes from within. I have been lucky to be in marketing. It helps me understand the core of human behavior and their motivations. It makes me skeptic and dreamer at the same time. It is interesting.

In the aftermath of the terror attacks, Pakistani artistes are being singled out and have been asked leave the country. Producers have been told not to take them in their movies or songs. There is enough indian talent they say.

Here, listen to this absolutely amazing cover by a Pakistani band. Tell me, if they come to India and play a song, how would we not end up being enriched? Would we be poorer? But hell, thanks to youtube, they are broadcast across the world. I just love the song, the cover version which I argue is better than the original. I love the sitar notes which reverberate through the song giving it a strong constant sound lending a kind of stirring to the guitar. The crisp tabla creates an interesting contrast to the more muffled drums used. The contrast and the richness is there to be heard. Like Indian classical jugalbandi style, every instrument is given its two minutes of solo with the rest giving it beat support. This takes a song that was essentially a solo to a group effort, making it unforgettable. Seriously brilliant.

While watching TV over the weekend, we chanced upon Haider. Haider is an adaptation of the Hamlet and Jispa with her new found love for English thanks to her amazing teacher Mrs Ayesha Thomas was keen to see the Shakespeare adaptation. We had seen Omkara, the Othello adaptation together and now Hamlet. It’s fun watching the movie with her. I had to explain certain parts of it and the language is a bit difficult for her to pick up completely on her own. But nevertheless it was awesome fun. At the end of the movie, we went through Wikipedia to understand the original story better and therefore to better appreciate the adaptation. While reading the explanation, I chanced upon this paragraph that explains all that I have written so far in this blog – “The idea that nothing is real except in the mind of the individual finds its roots in the Greek Sophists, who argued that since nothing can be perceived except through the senses—and since all individuals sense, and therefore perceive things differently—there is no absolute truth, but rather only relative truth”