Desicritics Category: Culture: Rituals

Sensibility in Senseless Traffic

Suresh Naig — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:44:19 EDT

All of us must have encountered impatient drivers, unruly drivers, rogue drivers and rash drivers on road, especially on the highways and seldom would have encountered ones with compassion and courtesy. Though one is tempted to attribute a life full of stress for the road rage, I believe it is more of an inculcated behavior than any extraneous factor for the traffic woes. We have come across drivers who are more adept in driving us nuts than a vehicle by their incessant honking; Some drivers whose hands are used to gesticulate “get lost” than any useful signs; yet another group of drivers using the roads as maze by not sticking to any particular lane; and the problem of impatient drivers is compounded by the frequent traffic snarls coupled with the enormous increase of vehicles on the road.

With the improvement of automobiles incorporating power steering, power brakes and a host of driver friendly improvisations it should have reduced the stress for a person behind the wheels. I fondly remember the camaraderie exhibited by public transport drivers on the winding hill roads to Ooty, when I frequented Ooty once a month on work in the 80’s. The Government owned CTC (Cheran Transport Corporation) buses were specially improvised for the grueling ride of 3 hours to Ooty from Coimbatore. The pneumatic braking of the buses was provided with an extra outlet for the compressed gas to escape, preventing brake shoes jamming while climbing down from the hills.

On the narrow winding roads one had to wait for the go ahead signal from the vehicle in front to overtake. After overtaking another slow moving vehicle, the bus driver thanks the driver of the slow vehicle by honking the horn twice “Tu Tu” (Thank You) and the driver from the vehicle left behind acknowledges by honking his horn once, “Tu” (OK). On the entire stretch of road, preference is given for the uphill traffic and downhill vehicles patiently wait, especially while negotiating a curve or hair-pin bends. Then again this “Tu Tu – Tu” exchange is enacted. The camaraderie was exhibited despite the fact that the vehicles were neither driver nor passenger friendly in the 80’s.

After a gap of around 25 years recently I climbed the hills of Ooty from Coimbatore, self driving my swanky sedan. My vehicle had transparent glasses on all windows devoid of sun films and it was easy for anyone to see the occupants. I was narrating my pleasant past experiences of bus travel on this sector to my wife – the only other occupant of the car, when I was nearing Burliar- the first point of climb. I had overtaken a bus and wanted to find whether the camaraderie existed; when I thanked the bus driver for having given me way by honking the horn twice “tu-Tu”, I could see the confused expression on the driver’s face in my mirror. I knew the reason for his confusion – he never expected a self driven swanky sedan owner with Karnataka registration number plate to know their friendly custom. However after a small pause he responded with a broad grin “Tu” (OK). My entire journey to Ooty was pleasant with “Tu-Tu” – “Tu” ritual.

Intercourse with the Natives

Dhiraj Singh — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:36:43 EDT

WE STAND IN THE middle of New South Wales’ Royal National Park holding hands and looking heavenwards to invoke Yullangur—‘the dreaming’ of the creation serpent—as our guide Les Bursill starts us on a tour of Australia’s sacred sites. ‘The Dreaming’ describes Aborigine Australia’s curiously Brahma-like worldview. According to it, all our realities lie subsumed by a ‘dreaming’ that started at the dawn of time, whenever that was. The fact that the phenomenon is still referred to in the present-continuous is interesting because it speaks of a larger inclusion of the timeline, especially since the arrival of the white man, a moment in history that has spelt nothing but doom for the ‘dreaming’. White Australians first came as a fleet of convicts and prison-guards to serve what was to be a very rigorous punishment. But strangely, they stayed on to give birth to a white nation, very different from what the Aborigine dreaming had ironically intended.

White Australia’s experience of the dreaming has ranged from outright rejection to utter moral confusion. From the early colonists point-of-view the native culture (or what was often seen as a lack of it) was in a need of a civilising influence. And they were more than happy to provide it. This began with the taming of Bennelong, a male aboriginal who in 1789 was abducted in keeping with King George III’s wishes “to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections…” Bennelong thus became the first Aboriginal to speak English, dress up like the white man and even cross the seas to pay a visit to England—not quite like a caged exotic, but close.

Since Bennelong, white Australia has time and again tried to ‘conciliate the affections’ of those whom it has tried to rule. The dreaming since then has become an object of much research and creative exploration by white Australians. A sense of this ‘terrible fascination’ (to paraphrase Rudolf Otto) is visible at the souvenir shops and Aboriginal art galleries that have turned sacred totemic art into novelty pieces. It speaks of a process of exoticisation that has squeezed Aborigine culture of its values and humanity. But signs of a cultural sensitivity are gradually showing up. In Warwick Thornton’s touchingly unsentimental film 'Samson and Delilah' (2009) an Aboriginal teenage couple escapes to the city from its community only to find city-life terribly harsh and unforgiving to moneyless wanderers like themselves. It is a fair portrayal of two opposing cultures that have unsuccessfully tried to negotiate each other’s mind space. There exists an interesting Aborigine corroboree or oral narrative about a massacre by the white man whose cow they had stolen and eaten because they were hungry. Since in the Aboriginal sense life is a dreaming it requires no further elaboration; in other words it has no need to assert notions of ownership, enterprise and other capitalist biases. These very ideas, on the other hand, have become cast in stone in the mind of the white West since it was industrialised.

Art has in fact served the Aborigine cause better. As its numinous appeal has been more in keeping with the dreaming way of life. But the wedge driven by the racial policies of the first white settlers have had a lasting effect. Aborigine poet-artist Maggie Walsh speaks of the lack of faith her community feels about the double life most of them live. “When I go back to the community they say, ‘So you wanna become a white woman, eh?’ and here in the city I meet all these wonderful artists and poets who treat me so fine and seem to understand me. I have no choice but to choose a double life.” Most Aussies of a generation or two ago are all too familiar with their treatment of Aborigines, who were often accosted at street corners and told to ‘go back to their own country’.

Internally, Australian racism is often viewed as a ‘hot-blooded’ response to immigrant presumptions but nonetheless it has deeper roots. Australia has been for over 200 years a society running on auto-pilot; a loose mix of white, imperialist and Christian tendencies. And now it suddenly finds itself having to make room for the ‘other’, largely non-white, non-Christian immigrant populations that have been gravitating towards its shores from all corners of the Earth. It is pertinent to recall here that for a long time Australia insisted on a ‘whites only’ immigration policy. It has only in the recent past opened its doors to other races. This makes Aussie claims to a deep-rooted cosmopolitanism rather facile. It’s like a big woman trying to squeeze into a size zero dress.

The ‘Indian issue’ has pained much of the left-leaning press and the intelligentsia but to the majority of Australians ‘it is not a race issue’. Till as late as 2005 white Australia had been at war with its ‘otherness’. In 2005 riots had broken out in Sydney’s Cronulla Beach between Lebanese Australians and whites over a few drunken remarks. A year before that, riots between Aborigines and white Australians had shaken up Palm Island over the custody death of Mulrunji, picked up for being ‘a public nuisance’. A few months before that, Aborigine residents had clashed with the police in Redfern, a Sydney suburb, following the death of Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey, another Aborigine teenager under police surveillance.

The attacks on Indians have a terrible ring to them, a sense of déjà vu and yet the police and lawmakers continue to treat them as stray disturbances. This betrays an attitude that as a country Australia has not been sincere in facing its demons. It has in fact chosen to look the other way or pride itself for its many ethnic enclaves as a sign of cultural mixing. But in truth mixing in the Aussie sense carries a lot of baggage, especially from the days of its ‘white occupation’. Newcomers to Australia find themselves in a surfacely friendly country that scoffs at any real understanding or abiding interest in the ways of life of its ethnic minorities. It is not surprising then that the exchange between the dominant ethnic group (of white Australians) and the rest gets limited to a cursory stereotyping of the rest by the majority. There is a heart of Australian conservatism, visible some years ago in the anti-immigrant remarks of politician Pauline Hanson, that hasn’t been able to keep up with the spacious geography of the land. Hanson in her book 'The Truth', had parodied the idea of multiculturalism by suggesting that by 2050 Australia would have a woman president who would be part Chinese, part Indian and part machine. This February she announced her decision to move back to England, the country of her birth. Hanson is not alone in feeling a particular fondness for the ‘mother country’. Australian society, despite appearances is remarkably old-world, attached through a well-tended umbilicus to the idea of an imperial Britain that may itself now be a speck in the amber of time.

In a country living largely in denial of its racist background it is a peculiar group that has taken upon itself to ring the alarm bells. It is a group of artists who have since the Sixties been ardent iconoclasts. Most active among them is ‘light-sculptor’ Roger Foley-Fogg, who also goes by the stage-name of Ellis D. Fogg. Roger tells me how much he is in awe of the Indian idea of ‘Vasudev Kutumbakam’ or the idea of the world as one family. Roger’s February show in Sydney was titled ‘Fire 2010: The Spirit of India’ and it gathered rave reviews from the art world especially because of its timing and its unqualified love for India. The show had featured ‘lumino kinetic’ works or sculptures made of LEDs and inspired by Lakshmi, Marut, Agni, Jal and the mandalas. “These were my personal impressions of the spirit of India,” says Roger, “the subtext of which includes the idea that all matter is made from light and music and the harmony created by their mixing.”

Roger’s ideas about the dreaming and the world as one family go back to his Sixties peer group. “I was first moved by this concept at the Yellow House (a former artists’ commune) nearly 40 years ago through an unpublished cartoon by Martin Sharp titled ‘We are all islands, joined beneath the sea’,” he remembers. Today, the thought of Indo-Oz relations being at their lowest ebb pains him. Roger’s light and film projects about Aborigine culture have tried to hold a mirror to mainstream Australia’s clumsy track-record of handling its otherness.

The biggest part, I believe, of any healing between cultures that have been at odds with each other is a dialogue. And what better way is there than using the language of music, art, literature and films to start that dialogue. Aussie filmmaker Albie Thoms made a case for exactly this kind of a movement in his Seventies’ book 'Polemics for a New Cinema'. Surely there’s no better time than now for Australia to open itself for some healing. To tell stories about its struggle with its otherness, especially through films such as the Aborigine saga of 'Ten Canoes' (2006) or the cross-cultural love story of 'The Combination' (2009). And to take on the bigger challenge of getting mainstream Australia interested in the dreaming.

Cultures That Stay Unknown

ssdt — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:04:02 EDT

For many of the South Asian countries, today is the New Year, from Bangla calendar to the Assamese, Burmese, Oriya, Tamil, Nepali and Sinhalese. As a Bengali myself, I concentrated myself on the culture and how it is being demolished. Pohela Boishakh, as it is called through Bangladesh "New Year" is the day of tradition, from the past. In those times, we used to have fun, eat, sing together, dance in our traditional clothing, watching and listening to the gazi gaans were all part of the traditions. But today, as I was watching the news from my country, this was what the new songs that came up with the reporters: "Melay Jaire" which is one of the popular band songs, that is remix from the Western culture. Other changes that I have noticed? Yes, on this day, on the grandest parade through the capital of Bangladesh, there were politicians and what were they talking about? They were giving speeches on what they would be doing, which is fairly common throughout Bangladesh.

Already the nation of Bangladesh has been gripped by the Western Civilization. DJuice is one of the common examples one can find about this where Western English songs and Westernized Bengali songs become the popular searches and downloads for many of the young Bangladeshis. Now this band and rock songs in Bangladesh's most cultural occasion poses a tense situation that change is coming throughout the nation and not just the nation but throughout South Asia.

As a Bangladeshi, I could write only about the cultural changes found in Bangladesh. It has changed not only in the method of being different but as one of the popular shows of Bangladesh, Ittyadi puts it, it has changed the knowledge of Bangladeshis as well. The ones that grew up in the villages now do not know how to get through a wooden bridge or through the slippery soil. As portrayed in one of their episode, the children do not know what many of the common foods of Bangladeshi culture is. As pizza, french fries and other brand name companies bring their own food into the country, this has proved to be a disadvantage to the culture.

But again, the new year, Pohela Boishakh is a day of joy, goodness for one and others. As the great Bengali poet Rabindranth Tagore said:

Esho he boishakh, esho esho

Come oh Boishkh (the first month of the calendar), Come come

Feasting Fasting

Anuradha Goyal — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:47:26 EDT

Last week we had the first Navaratras of the year. These Navaratras are not as celebrated as the one that precede Dussehra sometime in October, but none the less for the believers of Shakti, the importance of these Navarartas is just the same. Most of the believers would go vegetarian during these 18 days in the year and would try and eat food without Onion and Garlic. Quite a few of them go to the extent of fasting for nine days. The idea is to eat simple, let your body be free of extra work that it needs to do to digest what you eat and spend some time with your spiritual side.

It seems today in the world dominated by media and marketers who would not leave any opportunity to push their products, the whole premise of Navaratras has changed. The newspapers are filled with advertisements of Navaratra special food at all leading restaurants. The food chains announce that they are going completely vegetarian and you can safely visit them and enjoy your food as usual. The Vegetarian chains put up a special menu for those on the fast. They have invented so many recipes for the fasting population that it would take few Navaratra series to taste all the items on the menu. Special sweets made of items permissible in food for the fast are churned out, which are definitely heavy on the stomach for all the ghee and dry fruits that are inserted to justify the high cost attached to the items.

In this era of consumerism, are we stretching things too far? I read advertisements saying that ‘Why should you not be able to party during fast?’ Now, is there anyone being forced to fast? There were mouth watering photographs of the innovative dishes that while I was not even fasting, I went out and tried those dishes. The dishes made out in such a way that though technically no ‘Fast’ norm is broken, but the whole purpose of fast becomes meaningless. Like, Papdi chat made out of Kuttu ka Aatta, rich mithais being made of the same and some ‘Unavoidable in Delhi’ Paneer dishes made so that you do not miss Paneer for 9 days.

I want to know how successful these Navaratra special campaigns have been. How many people would have actually fasted per se but hogged on these special meals? Or was it the non-fasting junta rushing to these outlets to taste the ‘different’ food? Just curious…

Indians in the USA - Their Racial Perspectives

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:29:55 EDT

The fact that Indians (and yes, pretty much broad based definition of Indians) are racist is not open to debate. The national obsession towards whiter skin and the pretty much well known behaviour towards Blacks (of whatever nationality) is evident across the country. Ask any black chap to go to any place in the country and try to get rented accommodation or even walk around without being stared at. Do not get me wrong, I was four square in this category as well. Anyway, that’s not the point. An interesting question comes up, what happens when you take them out of India say to USA. If you do that, do their attitudes change? So what are the attitudes of Indian Americans or Indian immigrants towards African Americans?

Thankfully, we now have a research paper which sheds some light on this rather interesting sociological behaviour. The research picked 161 Indian immigrant and Indian American Students at a large mid western university in the USA. They were paid $10 for filling out a questionnaire which took about an hour to fill out. This sample ended with 63 Indian immigrants of an average age of 25 years and 81 Indian Americans whose average age was 20 years. Indian Immigrants were defined as people who spent their first 18 years in India. Indian Americans are those whose parents emigrated to USA and thus were born and brought up in USA. 51% male. ~$80k median parental income for Indian Americans and ~$30k for Indian immigrants. I am not going to go deeper into the methodology, that is guaranteed to send you to sleep.

So what did they find out?

Indian immigrants reported stronger racist attitudes towards African Americans than did Indian Americans.
Stronger the identification with other oppressed minorities, the more positive they felt towards African Americans
The beliefs about social status, social hierarchy like caste which are inculcated by Indians growing up in India is a factor in the behaviour of Indian immigrants towards African Americans
More contact with African Americans helped in reducing the level of racism
Indian immigrants do not identify with African Americans in terms of being a minority, they identify themselves more with the White majority.
Holding more positive attitudes toward being Indian was associated with higher levels of modern racism for Indian immigrants, but no relationship was found for Indian Americans.

Quite an interesting set of results there, Sir. Obviously the limitations of the study are pretty obvious. Small sample size in a hothouse university environment, one of the first studies, sample population not representative of overall population, inherent problems with trying to draw conclusions from such a small sample, difficulty in comparing world views of two totally different populations such as Indian immigrants and Indian Americans etc. etc.

But overall, looks like more contact with African Americans helps in reducing racism although India has a very long way to go before it can truly call itself as colour blind and non discriminatory. When people say that you can taken an Indian out of India but you cannot take India out of an Indian, looks like its true, but some of the worse elements you can take out.

Introducing Astrology in Schools

Priyank Chandra — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:24:12 EDT

I believe astrology should be introduced in schools. This is my firm belief, one which I have settled on after years of observation. It is time we give legitimacy to a practice that most people in our country either follow or "see no harm" in not following. It governs the lives of many and is the "belief" called upon whenever any events need to be initiated. No matter how many hours of work are put in by the men of science and technology, the astrologers are the ones who gives us the green-light. Such is their power.

I digress for a moment. Most of astrology at least pretend to appear scientific, with a lot of pseudo-scientific bullshit and a long list of complicated rules that have seemingly been studied and practiced for thousands of years. But you know what I really despise? Tarot cards. I understand the need of humans to find patterns in the randomness that surrounds us. But please make an attempt to pretend to to look harder. Cards? Seriously. Is that even trying hard enough?

So anyhow, introducing astrology in schools will allow students to wallow in the power of determinacy. They can forget the bullshit about uncertainty and chaos, ignore the vastness of the universe, of which we are but inconsequential constituents and pretend that the infinite number of variables that have the ability to influence the course of a life are an urban legend.

We will create a population of determinacy-loving content fools, with no concept of existential angst, only resignation to fate or a desire to perform meaningless tasks in an attempt to ward bad luck away. The stars have decided our fates. Our destinies are riding upon all the patterns in the universe.

I concede that holding on to the illusion of free will is too much of an effort. Astrology provides you an easy way out. While supercomputers still struggle to figure out the weather for the next day, astrology claims to know far more with far little information. And all from the unique ability to look at anything in the world, and predict. And from the stars, we have already moved down to cards and dust, parrots and palms. In the end of it all, we now assume that a recognizable pattern has to run through ALL the events in the universe.

The ones who claim to have found it will tell us about it, help us plan our lives and negate the forces of the universe by taking money from us. By teaching astrology in school, we cut down on the middle man. Let every child in the country find his own patterns, and manipulate them through creative means to enable them to have a better future.

Movie Review: Dharm - Unfairly Snubbed

Aditi Nadkarni — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:39:00 EST

Dharm, a Sanskrit word that for some means duty and for yet others signifies religion. We often hear this word used by religious preachers and at other times by leaders of political parties looking to pander to the majority Hindus in India. This term was heard when a mob needed some sort of a philosophy to bind them as they went about adhering to no scripture, driven by fury alone.

This film tells the story of Pandit Chaturvedi (Pankaj Kapur), a well-respected and stringent Hindu priest who adheres strictly to the writ words of Hindu scriptures. The pandit provides key religious advice to the families residing in the holy city of Benaras, at the banks of river Ganga. The touch of a low caste prompts him to bathe in the holy waters and his wife (Supriya Pathak) has to cleanse herself before she prepares his meals. Then one day an orphan left at their doorstep makes his way into their lives and warms the heart of the otherwise stoic and unyielding priest. Little Kartikeya grows up, his adoptive father's pet, performing religious rites, reciting verses alongside his beloved "babuji". His innocence remains untouched by the mounting communal discontent that occasionally disrupts into religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in the city. Amidst these tensions, Kartikeya's birth mother shows up to claim her son. As she walks into the pandit's door clad in a burkha, neighbors and patrons gather to watch, aghast. The boy is sent away with his Muslim birth mother in a heart wrenching scene, his cries are drowned in the enormity of the religious calamity that has fallen upon the priest's family for having adopted a Muslim child. The pandit's home is promptly cleansed, severe religious penances are performed and yet the priest's inner struggle continues, eating him up inside. He is torn between the love he feels for the child he sent away in a heartbeat and his duty towards the religion he represents. As the self-proclaimed protectors of Hinduism crazed with vendetta unleash violence through the city, this Hindu priest defies all that he has valued and reaches a revelation that changes not only his own life but of those that surround him and revere him.

When watching the film, the sensitivity with which each scene had been conducted immediately suggested the touch of a female director. Bhavana Talwar's handling of the characters is remarkable. She seems to have identified real people rather than characters for her film. Whether it be the staunch Pandit, his obedient wife or the child that tugs at your heartstrings, Talwar takes her time with each persona. Pankaj Kapur's performance is a testimony to the neglected and yet prodigious talent our film industry houses. An actor who has given us films like Ek Doctor Ki Maut and Ek Ruka Hua Faisla continues to loyally work in the shadow of a giant, the all consuming commercial film industry that allows little to no platform for performers like him. Hrishita Bhatt, stands out in the role of a young girl who falls in love with a foreigner seeking spiritual guidance under the tutelage of Pandit Chaturvedi.

This film is excruciatingly moving. It forces one to empathize with characters who in our every day lives we could never relate to. The religious discontent juxtaposed with the innocence of a child offers a stark contrast that leaves one emotionally and spiritually exhausted. The blood shed and the inciters of these harrowing incidents that swallow our cities are all revealed, their intentions, insecurities and motives scrutinized. The upholders of religion are exposed and so is the true character of those whose spiritual awakening finally leads us out of darkness. This film is not about the chaos that hatred leads us into but of the humanity that pulls us out of it, unscathed.

I found this film on Netflix after I searched for films starring Pankaj Kapur, one of my favorite actors who I have not seen since the Blue Umbrella. Having watched this film, I was so overcome with curiosity at never having heard about it before, that I did some quick online searches for it and found out what sounded like a joke, an April Fool's prank. How I was not aware of this blunder committed almost three years ago is beyond me. Apparently, this spectacular film about religious relations in India that is especially relevant in today's times was passed over as India's Oscar submission in favor of, get this, a mediocre film called Eklavya starring Amitabh Bachhan and Saif Ali Khan.

Eklavya had all the makings of a commercial film and a story with as many holes in it as Swiss cheese. It was a glossy entertainer with great cinematic visuals and the beautiful backdrop of Rajasthan and yet was most certainly not a moving film with a global appeal. All it had was an established and commercially viable star cast. Yet it beat out a film like Dharm which won our National Award and the Nargis Dutt Award for a film promoting national integration. It is even more shocking that our media and our audience does not create adequate hue and cry over such blatant unfairness by the subcommittee that decides the film that is submitted for an Oscar. In a film fraternity that goes weak in the knees at the mention of the name Bachhan, local awards are hard to come by for such films as well. In the year that Eklavya was sent in as India's official entry to the Oscars, brilliant films such as Dharm, Vanaja and Black Friday stood as major contenders and were duly ignored. I wonder how these filmmakers must feel when their masterpieces are dismissed in this manner by their peers in the arts and performance industry which should ideally define a haven for nurturing talent and relatively devoid of political corruptness. Who are these people on the committee that send out films on behalf of an entire nation? Year after year they send out stories, that to a foreign audience represents us Indians. I do not know enough about the process that goes into nominating a film for Oscar submission but the selection of films such as Heena, Jeans, Devdas and Eklavya would suggest that these members are not qualified to be making decisions about what kind of a film would be appreciated by a universal audience and that at times their decisions seem to be motivated by inexplicable political derivatives. Have of them watched an Oscar winning foreign film?

An Oscar may not define our successes in cinema, but the submission process and the errors, political gaffes or unscrupulous actions committed during the submission process sheds light on why the largest film industry in the world has still failed to make it's mark as far as world cinema is concerned. In Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Pankaj Kapur plays the role of a doctor who through years of hard work comes upon a major medical breakthrough. His elation at having made this groundbreaking discovery however is short lived when he realizes that his jealous and less talented peers have decided to snub him and are making every effort to ensure that he does not receive credit for his work, much like the committee that decided to ignore Talwar's superb effort.

The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:10:09 EST

This book review is a tad late compared to the time the book was published. It is estimated that the book is a copy of an original work compiled and copied by unknown authors somewhere in the 11th century in Egypt. This copy is roughly dated to approximately 12th or 13th century and refers to work done by a variety of astronomers, historians, scholars, travellers, cartographers and scribes from the 9th to the 11th century. It is currently available in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, UK and its reference shelf mark number is Bodleian Library, Dept. of Oriental Collections, MS. Arab. c. 90.

The original book contained 5 separate books, only two of which have been copied in the current book. The first book relates to astronomy and has 10 chapters. The second book relates to the earth and has 25 chapters. Totalling 96 pages, it measures 324 x 245 mm. Unfortunately, there have been some losses of chapters in the second book. The paper used is brownish and black ink has been used to write the text and red ink for the headings. There are also other versions and copies of the original book in various other places such as in Cairo, Milan, Mosul, Algiers and another copy in the Bodleian Library.

Here is the full table of contents. As can be seen, book 1 talks about the celestial sphere, zodiacal signs, constellations, stars with occult influences, comets, stars with bad and good influences, planets and their influences / properties, lunar aspects etc.

Here’s a screen shot of the celestial sphere. The sections on the outermost circle relate to constellation signs like Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, etc. Left is the eastern horizon and the right side is the western horizon (remember the centre for the writer is Cairo). Then the next circle inside relates to the major stars, constellations, and bodies such as Ursa Major, Cepheus, Lupus, Orion, etc. Then comes what looks to me like a monthly cycle around zodiacal signs and then the central circle talks about the earth’s seven climes which are aligned to the zodiacal signs. I have absolutely no idea about this detail, but it looks quite impressive.

This page shows details of comets and their properties.

Book 2 talks about the depiction of the earth and time zones, lands beyond the equator, the Arabian Peninsula, cities, seas, islands and other geographical entities, the cities and forts along the Indian ocean, the eastern Mediterranean sea and the cities/forts along the sea shore, the Caspian Sea, various other islands, lakes, rivers, fishes and animals of the seas, and then wondrous waters, plants and animals.

This is how the ancients looked at the world. This is the world map.

You have to put aside your current cartographic perspective to read this map. In the old days, a particular spot which was well known then, would become the centre of the map. So for example, Jerusalem was, for many many centuries, the centre of the map and everything else would be drawn with reference to that single location. Also, cartographically speaking, you will not measure distances and locations by latitude or longitude but by the distance travelled from the centre. As with everything, accuracy of places and diagrams was maximum closer to the centre. This map is actually somewhat oriented with geographical south in the top. In the centre you have the Nile Delta and the River Nile flowing up into the Mountain of the Moon and the Sudan. On the far right is Morocco. The bit in the bottom right quadrant is Europe with Constantinople, Spain, France, and Italy marked out. On the bottom left quadrant is Asia and Central Asia. See the two round fingers in the top left quadrant? They are supposed to be the Arabian Gulf with Mecca and the second finger is a mix of India and Iran. The round spot between the 2 fingers is Sri Lanka. The little edge on the far left is China. The blue lines indicate rivers. Deserts are marked and so are mountains. Pretty fascinating.

The text also has lots of maps of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Caspian, Scicily, Madina, Tinnis, Cyprus, Aegean Bays, etc., and then maps of rivers. Some of the explanations of marvelous sea creatures are very fascinating such as:

فهولا المشوهه خلقهم من تلك الامم فمنهم امة سكان بحر / برهاندين [؟] في بحر الهند ي15سُود الوُجُوه كخلق عادية واقدامهم من خلف أعقابهم مقدار الذراع شمط الشعور مرد الوجوه / طوالها ياكلون من وقع ياليهم من الرجال ويستبقون النسا ي

English translation:
Of these nations, the deformed peoples are the following: Creatures in the Sea of Barhāndīn [?]7 in the Indian Ocean. They have black faces, like normal humans, but their feet are turned backwards and are a cubit long. Their hair is grey, and their faces long and beardless. They eat any man who falls in their hands, and they share their women.

The map of the Indian Ocean was brilliant

It talks about two cities in India, Thaneswar, Dipalpur and then 3 additional unnamed cities. All these cities are separated by various rivers which rise in various mountains. They even mention Manila in here, showing how far the Arab sea farers fared in their voyages. It was difficult for me to conceptualise and mentally visualise these maps. It's so foreign to me, the current cartographic framework so settled in my mind, with the globe and Mercator projections that this kind of 2 dimensional, directionally challenged mapping was just so strange.

Interestingly they also talk about the infidel Turks. I am guessing they are referring to the Turks and Mongols. I think the Mongols heard that the Muslims in Fatimid Cairo were calling them Infidels and in 1258, the Mongols invaded the Arab lands pretty much destroying the Arab civilisation. Many draw the decline of Muslim civilisation from that event.

Here’s a circular map now:

South is at the top, West to the right and East to the left. Remember this is following on from ancient Egyptian times. The Nile River is one of the very few rivers in the world which flow to the north, for some strange reason, most rivers flow east / west or to south, very few flow to the north. So when the Egyptians would look at the river which provided them with their water, life and sustenance, they would look south. So for them the south direction was most important. Hence “Upper” Egypt. All Egyptian maps, till recently, were all oriented South on top. Sort of made me have a cricked neck, but it is a fascinating exercise to think how we are so accustomed to think north is top, and when something like this happens, you get all confused. It's like seeing the water circle the other way around when going down the toilet when you are in the south. You look at it but dont know what’s wrong.

The website is seriously flaky in term of performance, although it is well laid out. It took me 2 days to complete this review and this was after trying to connect over 20 times. I was not very happy with it but still, one day I will go to Oxford and see if I can sniff at it. There is something about old books and their smell which appeals to me. All in all, this document which is now free and freely accessible to everybody in the world with a net connection (when the site is up of course), is one of the world’s treasures. I strongly suggest you go take a peek at the book here.

My God Cannot be The God

Suresh Naig — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:31:19 EST

Recently I was engaged in conversation with a person on the hype created by the doomsday theory as per the Mayan calendar. He is one of the contemporary gullible, who believes in the prophecy of the new age soothsayers - the English electronic media people, be it elections, economy or weather. When I refused to buy the arguments - Mayan calendar or not, he argued that even many scientists in the program believed in it. When I delivered my sermons about the fallibility of doomsday theory and the credibility of the electronic media, he realized that I was adamant - which I am on many things, he thought he threw a bombshell at me by saying,

'Do you agree that if God decides to destroy this world he could do it without fail?'

I told him, 'that depends on your perception of God'.

'What is your perception of God?' He asked me.

I said, 'I wish I knew it'

He thought that I am an obstinate idiot and stopped the argument realizing the futility.

When I pondered over the point, I was knocked down and started seeing stars.

What is God and who could be God?

If God had created the earth - one of the planets in its solar system having its outer planet Pluto removed from its Sun by 5.9 billion Kms in the milky way galaxy, with several such solar systems and planets in one galaxy, several such Galaxies making up the ever expanding Universe - the limited neurons in my head failed to conceive the limitless superbeing called God.

The more I thought about the limitless God, the more I realized our fallibility.

The first and stark reality was the fallibility of religions, since the religion has limited the limitless by a name. Having confined the limitless GOD to a limited frame, religions have further narrowed our thoughts and forced us to believe in their GOD as perceived by someone. Organized religions, instead of encouraging individuals to perceive God in broader terms, have restricted the vision of individuals to narrow practices. While every religion claims superiority of its practices, mocks at other religious practices, without realizing that all practices have stemmed out of our limited knowledge and folly.

The second fallibility is attributing benevolent and malevolent attributes to God. We have downgraded the stature of GOD to a HR manager, appraising individuals on their good and bad deeds. An individual should indulge in good deeds and refrain from doing anything bad, only as a social requirement and not as a religious dictum.

Usurping is a tribal mentality; most religions classify usurping as a dreaded sin, but encourage and sanctify usurping in the name of GOD, belittling the limitless God. When religions try and define a magnificent being which is beyond definitions, into a narrow human firmament, the folly of the human mind is laid bare.

With all the apparent achievements we boast of, no human laboratory could create a living creature as simple as protozoa. When such is the limitation of our knowledge, I am amazed at our capacity in creating the Creator and attributing different names to our creation.

We Create, Christine, Cherish, Celebrate, attribute infallible attributes to our own creation, organize the ways and means to appease our creation, and finally get disorganized to fight to protect our GOD.

If it is GOD, yes, the limitless and if it is MY GOD, it cannot be, because it is limited.

Eclipsing the Eclipse

Suresh Naig — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:01:25 EST

Solar and lunar eclipses are usual occurrences and so also are the controversies surrounding them. Astrologers claim certain untoward incidents attached to these celestial events and rationalists dispute the same. Certainly eclipses are eclipsed by these people.

It is quite common for religious Hindus to abstain from eating food two hours before and after the onset of eclipses. Equally, it is a common occurrence for the rationalists to distribute freshly cooked food during the eclipses, to dispel the myth. Eclipses are certainly eclipsed.

Many people belonging to the IT sector in Bangalore worked on 9th January, a Saturday, to take a compensatory off on 15th Jan on account of annular solar eclipse. I was wondering why the well informed people from the IT sector were becoming gullible to the religious or scientific myth. Then I realized 14th being a declared holiday on account of Sankranti, these people could avail an extended weekend and the solar "Grahana" came handy. The hype created by the scientific community towards the annular solar eclipse has surpassed the religious fervor and the well informed IT guys have taken an informed decision, to have a long week end.

I remember the last significant solar eclipse in the 80s where it was such a rare event. The media created a hype about it, warning people about the dos and don'ts during the eclipse. The media hype was something similar to the Skylab crash, wherein some Newspapers used to print on their first page the countdown for the crash, 7 days to go, 6 days to go etc. Some villagers in India had vacated their dwellings and moved to faraway places, because it was declared by the media as a probable Skylab crash site and many public transport drivers abstained from duty on the solar eclipse day, fearing untoward consequences. Our group of friends enjoyed the solar eclipse with chilled beer and playing cards staying indoors. Skylab crashed and the solar eclipse occurred without any perceptible damage. Now the next one is around the corner with two consecutive lunar and solar eclipses in quick succession.

I was intrigued by the raging controversy between the religious zealots and the vociferous rationalists and wondered why the Hindu religious practices are always the easy targets for these people. Religious practices such as fasting are common to all religions and why only Hindu practices are mocked at? Is it because the Hindu religion is a soft target making them vulnerable, while all other religious practices are untouched.

Perhaps in all other religions, a religious practice remains as a religious practice and only the Hindus attempt to give a scientific perspective to their practices, irking the scientific community. As long as Darwin's theory of evolution is disputed in the closed walls of Sunday schools in Churches, replaced by the Genesis theory, scientific community is not bothered. If abstaining food, taking bath after eclipses etc are going to remain only as strict religious practices, I am sure the scientific community will ignore it.