Saturday 30 December 2006

Paradheen ahe jagati putra manasacha

After a long, long time, I have started to write about a poem that I have read.

This poem is extremely close to my heart. It is one of the best poems that I have ever come across in my whole life. You would be hard pressed to guess the poem - no it is not by any English, or American, or Canadian, or African, or Australian poet. In fact, the poem is not even English.

The poem is written in Marathi, by none other than GaDiMa. The poem is included in his legendary Geet Ramayan. It is "Paradheen Aahe Jagati Putra Manavacha"

This poem is the most philosophical piece of literature that I have ever come across. Dante, Nietzscshe, even the Romantics and their philosophies are nothing compared to "Paradheen Ahe". The profound philosophy of life that this poem puts across in such simple language makes it poignant. On top of that, Babuji's flawless music renders emotion to the poem. Before you even know it, the poem is transformed into a song - a song that reaches the very depths of your heart.

I don't want to consider which character sings this song in Geet Ramayan, or in which situation the song is sung. The song does not remain situational at all. I beleive that it is a global description of human insecurities and fears. It is the most global song that I have ever heard, the most global poem that I have ever read.

Let me start at the beginning.

The song starts with two profound lines:
"Daiva jyat dukhkhe Bharata, dosh na kunacha
Paradheen aahe jagati putra manavacha"
These two powerful lines give you the gist and the direction of the song. In just two simple lines, the poet displays the helplessness of man, and the dependencies that human life has on fate. Even as you read these lines, the helplessness depicted in them makes you restless. Your faith in yourself, in the fact that you can make your own life, suddenly starts shaking. These lines have the power to make you rethink all your successes and failures. And suddenly it occurs to you that maybe, these successes weren't yours alone. There were some invisible factors beyond your reach and beyond your understanding that were constantly at work to make you succeed. Suddenly, you feel as if these factors can go against you any time and you won't be even able to help yourself out of the mess. Deep down, you fear this. You have always feared this. But these lines give you the mantra of not blaming yourself for what goes wrong in your life. Indeed it is nobody's fault. You, as a human being, are dependent on something universal that you cannot see, but perhaps you can only feel. Sorrow and miseries are a part of life for humans. If you are fated to be miserable all your life, you will be so.

When you read these lines, you can see so many people in your mind's eye who have never really been successful or even happy. You realise that you always wanted to help them, but you could not. Do what you may, you could not save them from their destiny. Sometimes, things start to go well in their lives, but right at that moment, they leave this world for the next. They have always remained unhappy. And no one can be blamed for that.

These lines make you restless. They make you think. They make you remember uncomfortable incidents. They set the tone for the rest of the poem.

The next stanza talks about the character's lot in life. He (Ram) has to give up his would-be kingdom, and he is banished to the forest for 14 years. His father dies while he is in the forest. Strange fate for anyone. But this stanza serves as an example of human sorrows. The lines show that though Ram is sorrowful about whatever has happened, he cannot blame anybody. Because he knows that he was destined to leave his kingdom and go to the forest. In the same way, we can picture some things in our life that we were destined to do. Every small thing that takes place in our life depicts some kind of change. The change may not always be good, but we are destined to go through it. Neither princes nor paupers can escape this.

"Ant unnaticha patani hoi hya jagat
Sarva sangrahacha vatsa nash hach ant
Viyogartha milan hote nem ha jagacha"
Can any philosopher sum up the ironies of life in just three lines? Destruction is the destiny of all progress. All life has its end in death. Man meets another man only to be torn away from each other. These lines make you aware of the primary truth of life - death and destruction. You can suddenly remember the natural calamities that befall you. The floods, eathquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes - they have the power to destroy civilisation as we know it. They have the power to destroy earth as we know it. But when you read the lines, you realise that civilisation is meant to be destroyed even as we live through it.

The last line is the most poignant of all. "Viyogartha milan hote nem ha jagacha". It is the law of the universe that we meet only to be parted from each other, sooner or later. I remember this old couple that I used to see every evening while coming home from school. Both, the lady and the gentleman, looked so beautiful together. They were both very old, but fit and fine. I always saw them together, out for their evening walk. And one day, I saw only the man. I thought that maybe his wife could not make it that day. Maybe she was not in town or something. But since that day onwards, I never saw his wife again. The only conclusion that I could come to was that his wife was dead. I still feel very sad for the old man. He and his wife had lived their whole life together. They must have been through thick and thin together. But finally, she passed on, leaving him behind alone to face the world as he could. Could he help that? Could he blame anybody for that? Why did his wife leave him alone? Because that is the law of nature. That is the law of the universe. Maybe he could have passed on first, and then his wife would have been left alone. But that does not change the gist of what the poet wants to say. You meet others only to be parted from them, perhaps forever.

This is true for all relationships that we may have in life. We meet people, we become the greatest buddies. But after some time, our friends or we move on, a lot of water passes under the bridge, and we never see each other again. Sometimes we feel sad for lost friends. Sometimes we feel nothing. The depth of our feeling has something to do with what we call in Marathi as "runanubandha". But nevertheless, we have to part, and we never see some people in our lives again. But that is the law of Universe. We cannot change that. We are destined to meet and to separate. We are humans.

We cannot keep mourning for departed friends and relatives. Death is born with birth. Death always goes hand-in-hand with life. "Jivasave janme mrityu, jod janmajat". Whatever we see around us, whatever we feel around us, is all destructible. We cannot keep mourning for dreams. Because the universe is nothing but a dream. It is something that we can see, and we can feel. It is something that will be destroyed one day. We get good dreams when we sleep. We even get bad dreams. We get nightmares and we get beautiful dreams. But all of them are destroyed as soon as we wake up, just as the universe will be destroyed one day. "Dise bhasate te sare vishwa nashwantKay shok karisi vedya, swapnichya phalancha?"

Ram's father is dead, and he has come to the forest, banished for 14 years. Ram tries to tell his brother that everything was destined. Though everything happened suddenly, it happened because it was meant to. After all, our logic stops at the thought of death. This line sounds much better and poignant when read in Marathi. "Marankalpaneshi thambe tarka jantyacha". To translate it literally, it would read "The logic of a knowledgeable person stops at the idea of death". Is there any way to describe the insufficiency of human so simply, and so easily? Humans cannot think of anything beyond death. Death is the threshold of knowledge for them - a blank wall that no one can cross.
There are so many people around us that claim they are not afraid of death. But are they really not afraid? When the moment comes, how many of us would be calm and in control of the situation? We are afraid of death because we don't know what lies beyond death. Our religions have taught us to be afraid of hell and pray for heaven. But we don't know what would be heaven and what would be hell, even if they existed. We want to know so much, but we cannot know anything beyond death. That is our border - we can cross it only when we come to it.

No one can escape the circle of life and death. No one can escape sorrows in life. The present always walks the path of destruction."Jaramaran yatun sutla kon pranijatDukhkhamukta jagala ka re kuni jeevanatVardhaman te te chale marg re kshayacha"These three lines again make you think of your mortality. As you read these lines, you remember that you also cannot escape this circle of life and death. You are here to die one day. Just as the person beside you. You don't know when that will happen, but you can be sure that it will happen one day. Whatever you see right now, whatever you feel right now, all the present around you, everything is destined to end one day.

When you read the line "Dukhkhamukta jagala ka re kuni jeevanat", you suddenly remember all your petty sorrows and miseries. If your life has been a difficult journey full of potholes, you will definitely feel the truth of these lines. But even if you have had a smooth life till now, you will realise that you could not escape small sorrows and miseries even in a sheltered life. Sorrows are part of the game for you. You cannot escape them. You will encounter them at every turn in the road. Perhaps they would be minor enough for you to forget them easily. Perhaps they would be major enough to scar your soul forever. But they would be there, and you would have to face them, and go through them. You realise that as a human being, sorrows will always be your lot.

Your sorrows may be personal and private, or shared by others around you. Your sorrows might spring from a person leaving your forever. Your partner in life, or your best friend has died and left you alone. Your favourite relation, one who was the closest to you has died. But you have to remember that you were always meant to part. The poet uses a beautiful metaphor to explain this."Don ondkyanchi hote sagarat bhetEk laat todi dogha punha nahi gathKshanik tevi ahe bala, mel manasacha"Two logs of wood meet each other in the vastness of the ocean. For a time, they drift together with the current. All that is required to break them apart is a single wave. One wave just comes and Tears them apart, and they never see each other again. Just like this, only moments are all that you may have to spend with the people around you. You will never know when you may get separated for them.

The rest of the poem is situational, and pertains to the flow of events in Geet Ramayan.

This poem never fails to make me think of everything that I have today, and I realise that I might lose all in just one stroke of detiny. One masterstroke is all that is needed. I feel my own inadequacies and insufficiencies. I realise that there is no way I can stop the passage of time, and there is no way I can change my own destiny. When we are just out of college, we tend to think that we can create our own world through our own efforts. Youth makes us think that we can play God. But as we grow up, and as we mature, we realise that absolutely nothing is in our hands. We are just mere players on the stage of life. We start thinking of our own mortality. And one day we come across poems like "Paradheen Aahe", and we get emotional. Because suddenly we see all our insecurities, all our fears, all our inadequacies written down on paper. We suddenly feel thankful that we are not alone in feeling all this. We suddenly feel that the world is beautiful again. Because the poem makes us tell ourselves that we are not to blame. That we cannot change destiny. So we might as well not worry about it, and accept life as it comes.

My Thoughts

It's oh so cold today outside! The sun is out, but he cannot do much about expelling cold. He is so weak and inconsequential in the scheme of things out here.

I now know why they must have needed fires and hearths in the house before electric heaters. I now understand the fears of Mr Woodhouse regarding droughts and cold air. I now understand the importance of March, spring, and the change in the weather as depicted in English literature.
We tropical people can hardly understand the need of the westerners or North Asians, for that matter, or Australians, to talk about good summers. Summers for us are extremely harsh. You would hardly find anybody back in India who claims to actually like summers. Over here, summer heat can be had only for 3 or max 4 months of the year. Otherwise, it is just cold and bleak. There is hardly anyone on the roads. You would also venture out if and only if you need to. I had to go out yesterday for some grocery and I was caught in snow. It was so cold, and wet, and uncomfortable! All my romantic notions of snowfall and stuff vanished in a moment.

I am so happy to sit at home today, and stare outside at the snow on the rooftops melting. I can see some people venturing out...these people do not have a choice - they have to go to work. They are so cold...I can only see their faces; their cheeks are red with the cold, and the rest of their face is blue. I certainly do NOT fancy myself going out in this kind of weather.
There is only one corner in the house that the sun does come in at - only for 5 minutes at around 8 30 in the morning. It is only the rising sun, with no heat and no power. Nevertheless it is sun. The sun is so rare out here, that I usually look upon him as my nearest, closest friend whenever I can see him. How I hated him back in India. Out here, he has a habit of waking up late, and going back to sleep early. He keeps strange hours. He is up only by 7 45 in the morning and disappears in his bedroom at around 4 in the afternoon.

I hope the summers will really be warm and nice over here. People have told us that the summer months are fabulous. There is sunlight right till 10 at night, and there is a mood of celebration all over. Christmas would have been such fun in the summers!

Christmas also was kind of a disappointment for me. Back in Pune, the atmosphere is so vibrant! The young and the old alike get out of their houses on Christmas Eve to see the decorations in and around the Camp area. The whole country celebrates Christmas in such a wonderful way! Goa goes crazy over Christmas and New Year's. The mood is so different, so beautiful.

Out here, they did have really nice Christmas decorations all over, but that was about it. There was no one on the roads - of course, no one is foolish enough to venture out in this kind of cold. People did go out for the Midnight Service, and they must have celebrated Christmas Day in their usual way. But the one thing missing out here is the sharing and the bonding between people. Back in Pune, when you are out on the streets wandering around Camp on Christmas Eve, you can feel the happiness and the cheer around you. You can feel that the next person beside you is enjoying as much as you are. There is a special bond that develops amongst everybody, so that, even if you are a christian or not, you start enjoying the festival as if it were your own.

Out here, there is no one around for you to bond with. Even if there is, the person is really not interested in you, and doesn't give a damn to you. That is what I miss the most about India. The number of people and the feeling of oneness with the crowd. Inspite of eve-teasing, and murders, and thefts, and what not, it is the very nature of India that can't be seen perhaps anywhere else in the world. I like the polluted environs of India better than the clean, empty streets out here. I like the mismanaged MSEB better than the faceless company that provides electricity around here. I like the BSNL better than the phone companies out here. You can at least see the people in BSNL and MSEB. You can always scream at them and abuse them when they don't provide service. Here, if they don't provide service (and beleive me, it does happen) and if you use even one unaccepted word, they will sue you.

I like the potholed, indisciplined roads in India, as there are people around you all the time. There is life around you all the time. You are never isolated in your own world. Even if you are home alone, there are insects everywhere to keep you company. There are various sounds and noises and voices around to make you aware of a world around you. Out here, you just have the sound of the refridgerator for company. And of course, someone walking above you on the wooden floors.

Boy, I miss India.

Visit to Seattle Aquarium - 24 Dec 2006

In Phoebe's language, it was Christmas Eve Eve, and Aditya suddenly said that we should go somewhere, see something on the morrow. Of course, he had an extra long weekend due to Christmas, and I was more than eager to finally get out of the house and visit some places around Seattle. Aditya looked around on the internet, and we decided to visit the Seattle Aquarium. It seemed a small challenge to go so far without a car (it is atleast 2 hours away from our home here). But we were sure we could manage it. So we looked through the bus routes that we would have to take, and decided to leave the house at around 9 in the morning.

Come Saturday, Dec 24, and we woke up only at 8 in the morning. So the plan to leave the house at 9 went for a toss. We still had to make breakfast and have our baths and do whatever. However, we did manage to leave at 9.45. We waited for the bus till 10.10. Of all the days, today the bus was 5 minutes late. We could only hope that we woudn't miss our connecting bus. Coz according to our trip itinerary (yes, they have this here), we had to take the route 230 to Bellevue Transit Centre, and take Route 550 from BTC to Union Street, Seattle. From there, we were supposed to walk down the Madison Street to reach the Seattle Aquarium.

To get back to the point, Bus 230 was late today, and we could only hope that we wouldn't miss our Bus 550 at the BTC. In that case, we would have had to wait at BTC for an hour before the next 550 came along. However, we just made it.

The road from BTC to Seattle was amazing. I could see really cute houses that you get to see only in films. After that, there were small valleys and mountains in the background, to say nothing of the vast expanse of oceanic beauty that followed the mountains. Our bus travelled through the Seattle Expressway. Unlike back in India, the driver did not have to pay toll or anything :). The Expressway was also one of the most beautiful roads that I have ever seen in my whole life. I remember getting that feeling only once before - when I and Aditya travelled to Mahabaleshwar by car some months ago.

Seattle by daylight was beautiful. (I had a glimpse of Seattle after dark while going home from the airport on Dec 16). The city is situated very conveniently in a valley, and it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and on one side by the Pacific Ocean. Actually, a bay in the Pacific Ocean. By the time we reached Seattle, it had started to rain. Rain is just a way of life out here. But we Puneites are used to it by now - especially after the extended monsoon we have had this year.
After we got down at the Union Street bus stop, we had no idea of the direction that we had to walk in. We had no idea where Madison street was, and we had no idea where the Aquarium was. It is impossible to ask anybody in the streets, because there is no one around to ask. We started walking blindly in one direction, hoping it would be the right one. Due to the Holiday Season, some of the shops were closed as well. So we could not inquire in the shops. Finally we saw a shop open, and Aditya went in and asked the guy. He asked us to take the Universtiy Street and turn right at the next corner. Which is exactly what we did. We could see the sea in front of us (sorry if the phrase sounded too tacky) and we were sure the Aquarium would be somewhere nearby. We weren't sure exactly how near.

We finally saw the Waterfront area and asked another shopkeeper for directions. He helped us and showed us where the Aquarium was. Our guess was right - it was at seaside in the Waterfront area. After spending some time admiring the sea at Pier 10, and clicking some pictures at Pier 10, we hurried down to the Aquarium. We took the tickets and then we were transferred to a completely different world for the next 2 hours.

We went inside, and the first thing that we saw was otters. Simply marvelous. I had only heard of animals called otters. I had read about them in some books - I distinctly remembered an Enid Blyton book that had a mention of otters (even after years of studying literature, your childhood readings always stand you in good stead). These animals were huge - I had somehow imagined them smaller in size. It was their lunchtime and we saw them frolick around in the water while food was being served. It was a sight worth watching - worth taking all the trouble to go to the Aquarium in the rain and cold, not being able to feel our fingers and all the stuff. But the moment we entered the Aquarium, it was a riot of colours, shapes, sizes, and movement. Life took on a different meaning in there.

We saw such different varieties of life there! We saw huge mammals such as otters and Sea Lions. We also saw the almost invisible jellyfish. Starfish, octopus, whales, sharks, sting rays, sea horses, eels...name an aquatic animal and you would have it. We kept going to some exhibits again and again to see the kind of colours that we knew we would perhaps never be able to see anywhere else. We kept stopping at the exhibits again and again, because we knew we would never be able to see the vast variety of sea life in such a compact area.

After the otters, came the sea lions. As soon as we looked at them, we knew why they were called lions. These huge animals immediately struck as majestic and royal, as much as their feline namesake in the forests of Africa (I don't know if there are any remaining in the Gir to mention them). The sea lions were resting - some of them on the rocks, while others in the water. The ones in the water seemed to be only floating around on their backs. Looking at them, I thought wouldn't it be beautiful to be able to use your natural surrounding as your bed and cushions. We humans cannot sleep on the soil directly. We must have a bed, or at least a mattress. Such are the imperfections of human existence.

We saw numerous small fishes...I call it fishes, coz there were such a wide variety of them! It was easy to imagine them in their natural surroundings. The landscape would be a thousand times more vast and beautiful. Perhaps there would be uncountable different kinds of fishes in a single landscape. It would be wild and untamed. Untouched by human hands, the beauty would almost be surreal.

As we would say it in Marathi, 'aso'. There was the sharks section where a lady diver was cleaning the tank. (At least that's how it looked). She was wearing a Christmas cap under water!! It looked pretty interesting...I am sure if Santa chose a submarine as his vehicle instead of a carriage driven by reindeer, he would look exactly like the lady under water. After some time, she turned to us and she waved to us. Then she gestured something to the kids around and lay down on her back in the water. And then...lo and behold...she actually puffed out air rings for our benefit. The show was quite impressive, and the lady got a lot of applause. The kids were transfixed and the adults were appreciative. It was a nice few moments out there.

We also got to saw how they fed the octopus. A lady - Polly - had climed a ladder to reach the octopus tank. It was higher than most other tanks. She had a jar in her hand with goodies for the animal. She actually leant down deep in the tank over the octopus and gave the goodies right in the tentacles of the octopus. In the process, the octopus got hold of Polly's hands several times. She (they informed us that the octopus was female) also got hold of Polly's jar once or twice. Every time she did this, Polly had to really struggle to free herself of the octopus. The tentacles had suckers on them with which the octopus got hold of Polly. The suckers created a vaccum, and it would need a lot of strength to get away. In natural surroundings, I beleive the octopus would get hold of a victim with all eight of its tentacles at once, choking the victim to death. In the aquarium, the feeding tank was (thankfully) so small that the octopus could attach only one of her tentacles to Polly. The whole excersize was very interesting. They had also created two fake octopus tentacles in the octopus section. I took a picture with one of the tentacles over my shoulder.

There was a tank full of starfish near the octopus section. We went over to admire the starfish and I saw a notice - "Please touch the animals gently with only one finger at a time" or something to that effect. I was fascinated. I wanted to touch these animals desperately...but I also did not want to touch something slimy, and slippery, and basically something that looked partially like it belonged to the Slytherin House. But then...I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I went ahead and touched them. I was shocked by the encounter. These animals did not have slimy skins at all! In fact their skins were almost dry, and as hard as rock. I was going to touch some more, but I just happened to notice a crab really interested in the poky things that came in the tank and caressed the starfish all the time. He (I think he was male) also was an animal, he also had feelings. But I was not ready to risk my fingers to know what kind of feelings he actually had.

By this time, we were tired enough, and we had started thinking fondly of our warm home and hot lunch. We also had the challenge to find our bus stop and take the right bus at the right time. We were almost at the end of the tour. So we just looked at some more small fish quickly and found ourselves an exit. We came out of the aquarium, and it was cold and raining. We started walking in what we hoped was the right direction. In the process, I saw such huge garment shops with the most beautiful clothes that I had ever seen. I saw the most amazing wedding gowns! Oh they were so beautiful!! I understood immediately why women out here want to get married several times.
Downtown Seattle was very prettily decked for Christmas. The shops were nicely decorated, and they had their best stuff on window display. I really enjoyed this part also. I would have stayed there, looking around for some more time, but it was Christmas Eve, and Bus Service was not going to last forever. We finally found our bus stop. And we were very lucky...we got our bus in about 10 minutes. We were on our way back! We again changed busses at the BTC, and finally we were back to our home sweet home and for our lunch spicy lunch.

A day that can never be forgotten!